
Friday 16th November 11.00am – 8.15pm
Tabitha Moses presents The Lives of Others Symposium
Tickets: Free, no tickets required
Please click here to see the schedule for the day
Join us for a day of enquiry into how artists use other people’s stories in their work. Practitioners from fields of visual art, theatre, music, dance, photography, performance and poetry will ……….
The idea for the event came about when artist Tabitha Moses received a request to remove from public display a series of embroideries depicting the faces of children awaiting adoption. Many conversations followed and Tabitha grew interested in the ways other artists navigate the ethical and practical concerns of working with stories other than their own.
Tabitha will be in conversation with Julia Samuels about their respective works made in response to their own and others’ experiences of infertility and abortion. Louise Anne Wilson will further explore the theme from her perspective as an artist with a unique interdisciplinary approach who creates walking-performances in rural landscapes that emplace, re-image and transform ‘missing’, marginal and challenging life-events.
The Musical Slave, a street musician and storyteller, will join us from Norway to show and discuss her powerful epic ballad about the time she spent hanging out with the boys and horses of Dublin.
Poet and artist, Sophie Herxheimer, will focus on her story collecting practice; the layers of listening, particulars of voice and the artist and narrator as spontaneous collaborators. Collaboration is at the heart of Nina Edge’s life and work – both as an activist and an artist who brings the exhibition out of the gallery and into her comminty.
Roger Hill’s distinguished career has encompassed writing, directing, performing, consulting on arts and education, lecturing and broadcasting. He will lead us in a workshop exploring The Lives Of All Of Us; how we process others’ lives into our own.
Photographer Paul Trevor’s work is motivated by a deep curiosity. He will discuss the social and documentary impulse which drives his work and methods.
Grace Surman, whose practice sits within and between performance, live art, theatre and choreography, will present and reflect on her unusual working relationship with her daughter, Hope. Choreograoher Joseph Toonga’s daughter is the inspiration behind his dance piece Daughter, Daughter. Here he discusses his process of anonymous consultation with fathers and daughters across the country.
The day concludes with a screening of Clio Barnard’s award-winning debut feature, The Arbor.
Barnard deftly fuses documentary and artifice to tell the story of playwright Andrea Dunbar’s short, troubled life. The film includes excerpts of the acclaimed play Dunbar wrote as a teenager, also called The Arbor, about life on a Bradford housing estate. Dunbar’s family, friends and grown-up children were interviewed by Barnard and their words are here lip-synched by actors to mesmerising effect.