Performing Sculpture, a series of six workshops, NART Narva Art Residency, Estonia
April–May 2024​
 
Performing Sculpture was a workshop series in the Russian-Estonia border city of Narva. Together, a group of local women and Zimbabwean artist Zacharaha Magasa, we explored how sculpture can 'perform' through the mediums of text writing, live-camera and music. Thematically, we explored the architecture of fictional spaces and dreamscapes and discussed how our desires and losses are reflected in urban environments. This was especially prevalent in a city such as Narva, which is not just geographically on the edge between Europe and Russia, but also culturally, lingually, architecturally and politically. 

We worked with clay to create a model of our own imagined city, using methods such as Exquisite Corpse and drawing/sculpting meditations. Whilst we sculpted over the six weeks, we talked about the spaces in our childhood memories, video games, books and films. We talked about the different environments that we all grew up in; and these talks channelled into writing exercises such as free-writing and responding to prompts. The final texts were then read aloud over a piece of music composed by Magasa.

The final outcome of the workshops was a 'live-cinematic' performance on 11.05.2024. For this, we staged our sculptural city model – thinking about composition, lighting and camera angles. The final performance was a live-camera 'walk-through' and projection of our model, set to the text readings and musical composition. Documentation can be found on the Performance page, under
'What Whent Up in the Blaze'.​