HANCOCK & KELLY ARCHIVE at DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

hancock & kelly An Extraordinary Rendition (2019). Photo credit: Rachel Parry.

We are excited to announce that the archives of hancock & kelly and Traci Kelly have been acquired by De Montfort University (UK).

The archives will be housed at the Special Collections Department, and form part of the research and study at the Institute of Drama, Dance & Performance Studies.

The acquisition will be launched with an array of newly commissioned works in response to the archives by a collective of DMU graduates, undergrad and postgrad students. These events are part of a wider project, funded by De Montfort University, focused on Creatively Innovating the Archive, co-ordinated by Alissa Clarke, Harriet Curtis, Elinor Parsons, and 'Funmi Adewole.

Enquiries regarding access to the archives should be addressed to archives@dmu.ac.uk.

UNION ( Part IV: The Gilded Cage) DOCUMENTATION

Photo credit: Paul Samuel White, for ]performance s p a c e [

PSX 10 group exhibition at ] Performance Space[, Folkestone, UK; 28 May- 11 June 2021

VSSL Studio, London, UK; 12 - 26 Aug 2021

https://performancespace.org/PSX-Exhibition

]performance s p a c e [ have chosen 10 epochal photographs from their archive that typify the energy, attitude and ethos of the artists ]ps[ works with. Explicit, unapologetic & poetic; these images act as portals to various collaborations, geographies and moments from ]performance s p a c e [ past, while projecting that energy into our future(s).

NOTES FROM PERFORMING THE ARCHIVE AT 6018 NORTH

At the end of their residency at 6018 North, hancock & kelly will be sharing a work-in-progess performance of their new work, An Extraordinary Rendition, as part of the IN>TIME festival in Chicago (US).

An Extraordinary Rendition is conceived as a response to Goat Island’s first performance, Soldier, Child, Tortured Man, and explores notions of systemic violence through diverse references to militarization, spectacle, fraternity hazing rituals, and abstracted cheerleader routines.

Further information can be found at 6018 North.

IN>TIME FESTIVAL 2019

hancock & kelly will be in residence as part of the 2019 IN>TIME festival in Chicago (US) in February/March 2019, developing a new work for the upcoming exhibition, Goat Island Archive ‘…we have discovered the performance by making it…’, at the Chicago Cultural Center this Spring.

IN>TIME is Chicago’s triannual winter-long performance festival. It features a season of performances, presentations, and exhibitions at venues throughout the city from local, national, and international artists.

Full details of the programme can be found on the IN>TIME website.

ARTISTS IN THE ARCHIVE

Richard Hancock and Traci Kelly contributed to the recent Routledge publication, Artists in the Archive, edited by Paul Clarke, Simon Jones, Nick Kaye, and Johanna Linsley.

Artists in the Archive explores the agency and materiality of the archival document through a stunning collection of critical writings and original artworks. It examines the politics and philosophy behind re-using remains, historicising this artistic practice and considering the breadth of ways in which archival materials inform, inflect and influence new works.

Taking a fresh look at the relationships between insider know-how and outsider knowledge, Artists in the Archive opens a vital dialogue between a global range of artists and scholars. It seeks to trouble the distinction between artistic practice and scholarly research, offering disciplinary perspectives from experimental theatre, performance art, choreography and dance, to visual art making, archiving and curating.

(STATES OF) WAKE: DEDICATING PERFORMANCE

Photo credit: Bean

(States of) Wake: Dedicating Performance explores the dedication as a form of encountering performance. The publication explores the dedication as a critical form- a kind of committing of performance to something else, and stems from the live writing project that occurred as part of Wake Festival, curated by performance space in Folkestone in the autumn of 2017.

(States of) Wake takes its cue from the multiple histories entwined in ‘wake’, probing the kinds of attention that might be elicited by, or brought to performance. The dedication might be understood in different ways – the devoting, or setting side of something for something else; a particular kind of commitment; an inscription or announcement; a ceremony of opening or completion; and a ritual of devotion.

The publication is edited by Diana Damian Martin with contributions by Bean and Benjamin Sebastian, Selina Bonelli, Richard Hancock, Madeleine Hodge, Traci Kelly, Jennie Klein, Esther Neff, Problemdog, Sheaf & Barley.

(States of) Wake is available directly from performance space.

LAUNCH of UNION (PART V: PATHOLOGY OF DUST)

from hancock & kelly and Paul Samuel White UNION (Part V: Pathology of Dust), 2017

We are pleased to announce the launch of the final part of hancock & kelly's work, UNION, commissioned by ]performance s p a c e [ for the WAKE festival. UNION (Part V: Pathology of Dust) is a collaboration between hancock & kelly and Paul Samuel White, and is comprised of a series of performance-for-camera images and short accompanying texts. The work can be found online at the following link:

UNION (Part V: Pathology of Dust)

UNION explores ideas of physical and emotional labour, collaboration, and value. The project consists of five parts – encompassing print, live performance, and online media.

 The central materials of the work are the bodies of the artists, and coal. As a material, coal has been used – literally and figuratively – to both build and destroy systems of power and wealth, communities and bodies. Coal is bound with contradictions. As a carbon entity, it can be ignited to generate heat and electrical power – sustaining and enriching life – while simultaneously contributing to the irrevocable chaos of climate change. It is alchemical – transforming through heat into gold – it has been mined and used to line the pockets of industrialists and governments, while becoming an emblem of working class failure. Thriving towns and physical communities have been constructed around the industries which mined and processed coal, only to be left decimated by their collapse. Bodies, built and fed on mining, slowly asphyxiate on its wages of dust. Drawing on these ideas and concerns, and their own family histories as coal miners and industrial workers, Richard Hancock and Traci Kelly undertake a labour of images – a series of physical and emotional tasks mined from a poetic exploration of the body and a cellular reaction to all that burns.

Part V: Pathology of Dust is a series of images made by Richard Hancock and Traci Kelly in collaboration with the photographer, Paul Samuel White. The actions were performed solely for camera after the live performance of Part III: A Labour of Images, in the space directly above the performance location . Capturing hancock & kelly still marked by the work, they are attached by the throats with remnants from the performance. Their two bodies mirror a pair of lungs, straining for air, as they struggle to take one another's weight across the space. The images are accompanied by short quasi-scientific/poetic texts, meditating on the pieces that precede it in the series.

Documentation of the whole project can now be found online at hancockandkelly.com:

Part I: The Most Sensitive of Species 
Part II: Affective Labour 
Part III: A Labour of Images 
Part IV: The Gilded Cage 
Part V: Pathology of Dust 
Appendices: Taxable Economies

UNION (Parts I-V) was commissioned ]Performance s p a c e [ for the WAKE festival, and supported by Arts Council England.

UNION (Parts I-V) at WAKE Festival, Folkestone (UK), Sep 8/9/10 (2017)

UNION (Parts I-V) will premiere at WAKE festival next month. Further details here.