Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz at Arnolfini
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A event held at Arnolfini on Saturday 12th October. The event starts at 16:00.


Exploring the movement of time in the deep sea via conversation, connectedness, durational work and song-like structures.

Skywater, Facewater, Underwater Waltz is a new project devised collaboratively and performed by Karen Christopher, Tara Fatehi and Jemima Yong. Karen has a long history with Arnolfini, performing here many times as a member of Chicago-based Goat Island Performance Group; now based in the UK, Karen has continued her commitment to new approaches to collaboration across a series of different projects.

This project is centred around an interest in deep ocean life and culture: what can we learn from this inaccessible area of the planet, and how can we answer these questions:
Where is the edge of the sea?
What are we afraid of?
Can thinking take place without words?

By creating an underwater flow, various currents flow past each other in different directions the way shoals of fish do. The performers work with blending and combining, dissolving outlines between humans, and between humans and their surroundings. Drawing attention to the indescribable, this project uses sound, word and movement to cultivate attention, listening and connection making.

The project’s research has included the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone, an area of very cold and deep ocean ecosystems, including the very strange Angler fish found in this underwater area. Creatures at this depth possess physical characteristics and ways of sensing and shifting we never experience in our world.

“Species in the deep and cold ocean waters are especially vulnerable to human impact. Many have similar or longer life spans than humans, they grow and mature very slowly and have only few offspring at irregular intervals.”
(from the Charlie-Gibbs Marine Protected area website).

The project is supported by Queen Mary University Centre for Creative Collaboration (London) and Arnolfini (Bristol), and will be completed in 2025.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions

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