Edward Thomasson
Volunteers at DRAF Studio
The artist Edward Thomasson’s project, Volunteers, was developed in DRAF Studio, a platform that operated between 2015 and 2017 and which brought together and hosted in residence artists, choreographers, musicians, writers and peer organisations to discuss and develop live work and installation.
Over the course of a month-long residency, Edward Thomasson developed a new project that incorporated the production of a video work and the public presentation of a new one-act play. The DRAF Studio space shifted between rehearsal studio, video set and theatre, as a group of actors developed and performed songs and narratives by the artist, first for camera and then for a live audience. The project focuses on how individuals behave in mutually beneficial relationships and how this behaviour might be useful in understanding exchanges between performer and audience. Looking specifically at instances in which people voluntarily allow themselves to be used by other people, the project continues Thomasson’s investigation into how stories are shared on camera, on stage and in everyday life.
