In The Absence of Formal Ground
In the absence of formal ground, what do we build instead? This project is a love letter to all the ways in which we keep moving, building and making space for each other. Formed through a series of connections made through the East and South East Asian Network in Liverpool, the work spotlights three performance artists and theatre makers (Nadia Anim, Vera Chok and Pei Yee Tong) exploring how we define our own ways of moving, and the importance of building from the ground up. Using the streets of Liverpool as a platform for each individual, these photographs and conversations are a demonstration of taking up space - a presentation of continued movement in a city with a history of migration and community led action.
Detail of performance artist Vera Chok. [ID: The image reveals a hand closed into a gentle fist. Their sleeve is a bright orange and the background is a teal shade. From the corner, their dark hair and shoulder enters the right side of the frame.]
It’s easy to feel isolated in the spaces around us. While we live in a landscape structured to favour individualism over collective care, solidarity and community are needed more than ever.
Performance in itself is a conscious movement, a galvanised action calling for a witness. While this project is presented through a lens of performance, ultimately this work is about making space for each other, carving new ways of moving and co-existence.
It’s an invitation to take up space and share it.
A declaration to all the ways in which we still show up
'I am always questioning why things have to be the way they are...There are completely different ways of experiencing the world. We can keep questioning and playing in different spaces. Even what we think of as fundamentals like the gender binary... those are all social constructs and that can be completely un-grounding or liberating or both. And that's exciting.’ - Vera Chok
Portrait of performance artist Pei Yee Tong [ID: A person standing sideways with their arms raised from the waist up. Their arms cover their face and they have long, dark hair. In the background, a blue-grey concrete building stands. Their arms align with the diagonal lines in the building.]
Pei Yee Tong. [ID: A person stretches against a brick pillar in an alleyway with rectangular arches.Their legs are stretched in a diagonal angle, and their arms are leaning against the brick.]
'... hopefully, we could all heal as a collective, as a society as a community. Listen to people more.' - Pei Yee Tong
Nadia Anim. [ID: A portrait reveals a person standing under a rectangular light source, against a concrete wall. They are leaning against the walls and they look upwards towards the light. Their arms are raised in a semicircle shape.]
The work that I've enjoyed are things that I feel on paper are deemed not quite interesting enough or tick-boxy enough. But these are the things that people feel. They should be showcased ... giving people that platform is important.' - Nadia Anim
[ID: A rectangular card made of seeded paper and vegetable ink. The card reads ‘In The Absence of Formal Ground’. The paper is damp and has begun to sprout with green leaves.]
The work showcases these stories through print and digital media, featuring a newspaper broadsheet, audio stories and super8 film. Using these materials, forms of archival storytelling are subverted through communal and performance practices, acting as resistance to erasure. Accompanying the newsprint, links to each performer's audio story are printed on a piece of card. After listening to their stories, these cards can be planted into soil, where the embedded seeds will grow into wildflowers.
The use of regenerative materials offer an invitational safeguarding practice to all who engage with the stories. Through invoking an act of care into the listening of these stories, there becomes an exercise in building roots and collective ground making.
It calls into consideration the actions we take to share and protect stories as a community.
Examples of the double printed seed cards made with compostable paper and vegetable ink. The QR code on the back linked to a digital space where the audio stories of each person interviewed could be heard, alongside a short film and collection of images.
These are provided in supplement to the newsprint, which features conversations and images with each performance artist, discussing what it means to take up space, how we build community in the spaces around us, and how conscious movement can be a radical act.
Presenting the work through these mediums allowed the stories to be transportable, defying the traditional confines of gallery presentation and offering accessible forms of engagement with mixed media.