Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome and Leah Clements discuss the unruly powers of the body, social and collective experience and questions around non-hierarchical performance set-ups. They hold a conversation from their distinct practices: Fernanda aims to create relaxed environments, shifting away from the primacy of the visual in experiencing performance and exploring artists’ and audiences’ agency, while Leah Clements’ practice is concerned with the relationship between the psychological, emotional, and physical, often through personal accounts of unusual or hard-to-articulate experiences. Fernanda’s interest in ASMR leads her to explore how sounds can stimulate sensations and kinaesthetic responses in the body, and how we can allow ourselves to tune into innate gut intelligence while in a relaxed state, while Leah’s work also focuses on sickness/cripness/disability in art, in critical and practical ways.
This talk was part of Crossing Borders 2019 and was presented in partnership with Sadler’s Wells, and supported by the Society for Dance Research and University of Roehampton.
Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome, born of English and Chilean descent, has been working since 2009. Her practice involves dancing/ voicing as political gesture, presenting in established institutions, alternative spaces and club scenes. She is interested in creating work which enables reorientation around otherness; crafting queer spaces where care and consent promote exploration and political activism are main concerns. Working with pop/punk bands, electronic music producers/ artists in music settings and galleries, she has presented and performed in work at E-WERK Luckenwalde for Block Universe, David Roberts Art Foundation, ICA, Barbican, Siobhan Davies Dance, South London Gallery, TATE Modern, Store X, Oval Space, Block Universe, Art Night, Phillips auction house, Palais de Tokyo, Chisenhale Dance Space, Chisenhale Gallery, Calvert Foundation, RA, Arnolfini and Whitechapel Gallery. In 2013 Fernanda co-founded the ongoing transdisciplinary performance night London Topophobia. Her Wild Card night at Sadler’s Wells is on 14 & 15 November 2019. Her current project INCHOATE BUZZ is supported by Jerwood Arts and Arts Council England.
Leah Clements is a London-based artist. Her work explores self/other boundaries and collective identities, the subconscious, and the impact of emotion on the body. Recent exhibitions, screenings, events and residencies include (2019): ‘Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary Exhibition’, Baltic39, Newcastle, ‘On Allyship’, ICA, London, ‘Beyond the Perfect Image’, Wellcome Collection, London, 2019, ‘Still Here’, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (2018): Artist residency, Wysing Arts Centre, ‘I never promised you a rose garden’ Matèria, Palermo, On Cripping ICA, London, Artist residency, Rupert, Vilnius, ‘Skin of the Eye Act II’, Vermilion Sands, Copenhagen, (2017): HereNow Art+Technology Residency, Space, London, (2016): ‘we felt the presence of someone else’, Jupiter Woods, London, (2015): ‘Beside’, live work, Chisenhale Gallery, ‘you promised me poems solo show’, Vitrine, London. In March 2019 Clements launched Access Docs for Artists: an online resource made in collaboration with Lizzy Rose and Alice Hattrick to help disabled artists create and use access documents.
As published in 2019.
