Through the Communal Knowledge programme artist Patrick Staff will develop a range of choreographic strategies - including, but not exclusive to, group meetings and discussion, dance works, photography and video - to form an intersectional questioning of how bodies are presented, produced, represented and assessed in the fields of performance and dance; healthcare and therapy; technology; and labour.
2013–2014
Scaffold See Scaffold is a project by Patrick Staff which utilises a range of choreographic strategies in order to explore and question how bodies are presented, produced, represented and assessed within the fields of performance, healthcare, technology and labour. Staff has undertook research at the Trinity Laban archives; discussions with groups of practitioners, researchers and activists; and physical workshops with other artists, members of local groups such as Opening Doors London (which supports older generation lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people) and DreamArts (a youth performance group), as well as public participants.
On 20–28 September 2014 Patrick Staff displayed a series of large format posters on the exterior of The Showroom's building. These featured an interview between the artist and one of the project's collaborators. The text explored disabled and queer identity, austerity, illness and flexibility: and asks how we read bodies amidst complex economic, social and cultural representations of identity and issues of visibility and identification within institutional sites.
In September 2014 a series of public discussions, led by invited practitioners, responded to this text in relation to their own work and lives. Invited guests include the research group Manual Labours, choreographer Hamish Macpherson, members of Opening Doors London and the disabled women's co-operative, Sisters of Frida.
This project is commissioned as part of Communual Knowledge which is generously supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s Charity, John Lyon’s Charity, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England and The Showroom Supporters Scheme
In collaboration with Opening Doors London Physical Study Group DreamArts and choreographer and performer Hamish MacPherson
With thanks to Stella Dimitrakopoulou, Kate Hancock, Jane Fowler, Antje Hildebrandt, Park Mcarthur, Vanda Playford, Romana Schmalisch and Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers.
Patrick Staff is a London-based artist.
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