In The Absence of
Formal Ground
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 (Nadia Anim, Vera Chok and Pei 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.
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.
You can find the full film and photographs from this series below.
In The Absence of Formal Ground features three performance artists discussing what it means to take up space and be visible, how we build community in the spaces around us, and how conscious movement can be a radical act.
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 the stories, they 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 listen and engage with the stories - an exercise in building roots and collective ground making.
Pictured: sprouted seed paper from In The Absence of Formal Ground
This work was exhibited in:
Open Eye Gallery as part of the Open Source Programme, 2024
Copeland Park and Bussey Building, 2023
Arts University Bournemouth, 2023
as part of Arts University Bournemouth Graduate Showcase
Newsprint and more details surrounding the creation of this project can be found here.
