(X) An Evening of Performances + DRAF 10th Anniversary Party at KOKO

2 October 2017
00:00
02:12

This 2017 and tenth anniversary edition of Evening of Performances takes place at the historic music venue, KOKO, London and brings together artists, musicians and choreographers for an evening of live works.

Roberts Institute of Art

The programme includes the following artists and performances:

The evening opens with Lina Lapelytė’s Ladies. Violeta, Nijole, Danutė and Judith have performed for thirty years as part of Lietuva ensemble, a folkloristic orchestra that toured worldwide during the Soviet regime. They perform using Kanklės, a traditional Lithuanian instrument.

Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings are working with singer Zee Asher and Producer Owen Pratt to create an immersive and highly sensual work that evokes the tragic and euphoric spirit of their ongoing UK Gay Bar Directory.

Love Songs by Last Yearz Interesting Negro aka London-based choreographer Jamila Johnson-Small is a body of ‘techno-meditations on osmosis, internalisation and transformation, with a feeling for the tensions between things.’ The work features lighting by Jackie Shemesh and original music from Junior XL and Shelley Parker.

Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art

Kris Lemsalu is joined by singer-songwriter Glasser and four archangels for In Heaven Everything Is Fine.

Laure Prouvost presents a new musical performance with grime MC Trim and DJ A.G. Exhausted...excited exhaustion with Trim combines melodic compositions and improvised dialogue in front of a vast illustrated backdrop made by the artist.

Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art

The evening crescendos with Marvin Gaye Chetwynd’s MEGA HAMMER, a spectacular carnival of surreal acts by dozens of collaborators across the space: Madam (aka Adam Christensen) serenades the crowd with her accordion. Jedrzej Cichosz performs Earthly Delights, a live acrobatic action painting session supported by cooing admirers. Chanteuse Mathilde Fernandez is joined by Etienne Dumas for The Ventriloquist’s Recital. Paul Kindersley performs the celebrated Henry Moore Workout. Mette Sterre and five collaborators awaken a giant monster costume for What I will Not Do For Halloween. Culture&Leisure (brothers Beinn, Rory and Lewis Watson) accompany a medieval mime troupe. All-female band Stasis (Olivia Norris, Aniela Piasecka, Isabela Palmstiera, Paloma Proudfoot) and duo Bugatti (Rebeca Oliva and Olivia Sabin) play short sets. Artist Elsa Lefebvre performs her musical turn with Thomas Dupal — THE GOST OF FAME 2017 — and Miserycorpse & Girthdaddy dreamguy perform Dopethrown. A giant handmade bunting sculpture The Stars Are Aligned (I should KOKO) 2017 by artist Lucy Soni adorns the stage.

Presiding over the entire troupe is the artist herself, Master of Ceremonies Marvin Gaye Chetwynd resplendent in red paint and papier-mâché breast extensions.

Nkisi finishes the evening with a DJ set of her distinctive mix, drawing on influences from African club tracks to gabber and doomcore.

Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art

Evening of Performances is supported by DRAF Galleries Circle.

Lina Lapelytė, Ladies is supported by Lithuanian Cultural Institute. The work was commissioned by Rupert in partnership with The Living Art Museum and Oslo National Academy of Arts as a part of ‘Double Bind’ programme and produced under the EEA funding program and Lithuanian Republic in 2015.

Kris Lemsalu, In Heaven Everything Is Fine is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Embassy in London, Koppe Astner, Glasgow, and Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn. Thanks to Juhan Ulfsak.

Marvin Gaye Chetwynd

Marvin Gaye Chetwynd lives in Glasgow, UK. Chetwynd’s practice intertwines performance, sculpture, painting, installation and video. Her work incorporates elements of folk plays, street spectacles, popular culture and Surrealist cinema. Her performances and videos often employ troupes of performers – friends and relatives of the artist – and feature handmade costumes and props. She has performed and exhibited internationally, and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions include The Stagnant Pool, Gregor Staiger Gallery, Zurich, 2017; Uptight upright, upside down, CCA Glasgow, 2016; JABBA, I’M BACK!, Bergen Assembly 2016, Norway; Cocaine and Caviar, Bergen Assembly 2016, Norway; Camshafts in the Rain, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany, 2016; Bat Opera 2, Massimo de Carlo, Milan, 2015; Hermitos Children2, Studio Voltaire, London, 2014; Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 2014; Marvin Gaye Chetwynd,Nottingham Contemporary, 2014. Recent Group exhibitions include Coming Out, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2017; Dogsy Ma Bone for Tate Exchange, Liverpool Biennial Tour, London 2016; Diorama: Invention of Illusion, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany, 2017; Room, Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, 2017; Dogsy Ma Bone for Touchstone, Rochdale, UK, 2017; and Room, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 2017. She is represented by Sadie Coles HQ, London, Massimo de Carlo, Milan and Gregor Steigler, Zurich.



Evening of Performances

Our Evening of Performances (2008–ongoing) is an annual highlight of our programme that brings together artists, musicians and choreographers for a presentation of new live work. Each year we commission performances that showcase the energy and diversity of performance art. The event is open and free to all.

Lina Lapelytė

Lina Lapelytė is an artist living and working in London and Vilnius. Her performance-based practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes, aging and nostalgia. Lapelytė explores contemporary forms of performativity that are related to rituals of folk, popular music and opera. Her works are fueled by expression, marked by pastiche and grotesque, contextual and conceptual musicality, theatrical suggestibility, stylised visuality. In Autumn 2017 she will have a solo show at Rupert, Vilnius as well the performance night at the FIAC, Paris. Her new collaborative opera Sun and Sea will be shown at the National Gallery in Vilnius and Dresden State theatre. Her recent shows and performances include Malmo Konsthall, Malmo, 2017; MACBA, Barcelona, 2017; Magma, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, 2017; Why Patterns?, Middleburg, Netherlands, 2017; Baltic Pavilion, Venice Biennial, 2016; Peculiar People, Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK, 2016; Double Bind, NILO, Reykjavik, 2016; CA2M, Madrid, 2015; Listening, Hayward touring show, UK, 2015; Block Universe, London, 2015; Park Nights, Serpentine Galleries, London, 2014; Baltic CCA, Newcastle, 2014.

Last Yearz Interesting Negro

Last Yearz Interesting Negro aka Jamila Johnson-Small currently makes dances and works to create spaces (on stage, in corners, on screens, in rooms, in bodies) with no single direction and no clear intentions, harbouring no desire to be useful other than to make gestures towards decentralised power and non-hierarchical structures for existing. Her practice looks to disengage with cultural systems of value that direct and inform style and in which she finds no interest or agreement. She is interested in surfaces, structures and the space/tension between things whilst looking to expose and discuss, the politics, perversities and movement of power within and around structures of production and the production of being. Jamila is one half of duos ‘immigrants and animals’ (now defunct) and ‘Project O,’ and works solo as Last Yearz Interesting Negro. She runs DIY event GUSH at home in London, conversation series HOTLINE with Sara Sassanelli and is happy to collaborate regularly with other artists including Fernanda Munñoz-Newsome, Shelley Parker and Phoebe Collings-James. Her solo performance i ride in colour and soft focus no longer anywhere premieres at Fierce Festival (Birmingham) in October 2017.



Kris Lemsalu

Kris Lemsalu is based between Tallinn and Berlin. She often experiments with traditional techniques to create multilayered works, juxtapositioning porcelain casts of animal body parts and garments with found natural and synthetic objects to create large scale installations. These installations often function as a stage for Lemsalu’s performances, with the materials becoming part of her costumes. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include Beauty and the Beast (with Tiit Pääsuke) at Tallinn Art Hall (2016); Afternoon Tear Drinker at Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt; Blood Knot Step By Step, Bunshitu Gallery, Tokyo; Fine With Afterlife, Ferdinand Bauman Gallery, Prague. She has an upcoming solo show at Koppe Astner, Glasgow and will participate in Performa, New York.



Nkisi

Nkisi aka Melika Ngombe Kolongo is an artist raised in Belgium and now living in London. She’s a producer, DJ and co-founder of NON Records, a collective of African artists and artists of the diaspora, using sound as their primary media, to articulate the visible and invisible structures that create binaries in society, and in turn distribute power. She’s a regular at the Endless club night, playing an exciting mix of fast-paced music that draws from many influences (from central and west African club tracks to gabber and doomcore). While producing her own tracks, she goes for a heavily layered, relentless sound, often playing with collective memory. Performances include Corsica Studios, London, 2016; Bold Tendencies, London, 2015; Dance Tunnel, London, 2016; The New Museum, New York, 2016, and a regular spot on NTS London.



Laure Prouvost

Laure Prouvost lives and works between Sawnsea and Molenbeck. She practices making video, sons, sounds and daughter, ob-jects and installation………………….here a long list of solo museum and institu- tions shows ……..here a long list of group shows. a line, interesting things, a coma, a line, a list of residencies and prizes. A Selection of solo projects including: a New Museum for Grand dad in Milano, A tearoom for grand ma in Derry, a karaoke room in Brussels, a new octopus ink vodka bar for Gregor in Rotterdam, A travel agency for an Uncle in Frankfurt, a lobby for love among the artists in the Hague and Luzern, tea bags, and wet floors.

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings live and work in London. They graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2014. Their work centers themes of queerness and resistance, and includes an ongoing project @Gaybar, Wherein the artists rematerialise the historic gay bar as a container for queer practice. Selected solo/duo exhibitions include Fuck Me On The Middle Walk, Truth and Consequences, Geneva, 2017; GENTRIFICATION, presented by Daata Editions and Zuecca Projects, 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, 2016; How to survive a flood @Gaybar, DRAF Studio, London, 2016; Cruising Extinction, @Gaybar, Oslo 10, Basel, 2015; If These Fossils Could Talk They Would Tell You Who Got Fucked and Who Didn’t, Room E10-27, Paris, 2015; Tifkas, Arcadia Missa, London, 2015. Selected group exhibitions include Coming Out, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2017; Late at Tate, Platinum Paradise (event), Tate Britain, 2017; Utopian Voices Here & Now, Somerset House, London, 2016; No! I Am No Singular Instrument, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2016; Curators’ Series #9: Ways of Living by Arcadia Missa, DRAF, London, 2016; CONDO Cinema(screening), Genesis Cinema, London, 2016; Frieze Art Fair, London, 2016; and S, Arcadia Missa, London, 2015. Forthcoming shows include a solo exhibition at Arcadia Missa, London, 2017, and Queer Thoughts, New York, 2018. They are represented by Arcadia Missa, London and Truth and Consequences, Geneva.

Trim

Trim aka Trimbal Tali is a grime MC from East London. After leaving the Roll Deep Crew in 2007, he has taken a path of experimenting different musical sides and standing as an artist on his own. This has led him into challenges such as starting his own collective and label (known as Saom – Secluded Area Of Music), releasing several mixtapes and EPs and collaborations with other musicians such as Skream, Mark Pritchard, Paul White, Ryan Hemsworth, Zdot and, more recently, with James Blake who released Trim’s recent album 1800 Dinosaur presents Trim on his own label.



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Roberts Institute of Art

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Roberts Institute of Art

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Roberts Institute of Art

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Roberts Institute of Art