Artist / singer song writer Rosie Lowe invited Goldsmiths Vocal Ensemble (GVE) and Laura Hemming-Lowe to collaborate with her for her Earth Hackney gig on 19.02.2020. Hemming-Lowe worked on the choreography and costume design to create a simple and effective spectacle for two songs that were performed within Rosie’s set. During weekly rehearsals, Alice Grant, musical director of GVE, Hemming-Lowe and Lowe worked together with the eclectic group of singers to orchestrate a mesmeric and powerful sound and visual aesthetic.
‘Using a nude coloured net fabric I wanted to find a way to conjoin the performers into one moving, living, breathing cell. The costumes where sewn together so that the performers were physically linked on stage and the movement was a collaborative effort which relied on everyone being focused and engaged in the moment which really brought about a sense of community’.
Infinity Dance is part of artist Aimee Marshall’s Cave Of Infinity project. A mirrored painting adorned with abstract imagery, inspired by the first known homo sapien cave paintings, is the inspiration for the performance. Markings, drawings and symbols found in caves and on rock faces in Argentina, Borneo, the Western Desert of Egypt, Indonesia, Central India and the Horn of Africa are incorporated into Marshall’s work as a form of communication that tell stories of everyday rituals.
The circle dance is shown in a number of these artefacts from the 12th to 16th Century. Historically, the circle dance was used to strengthen community, mark special occasions, spiritual ceremonies and contribute to a feeling of ‘togetherness ’.
In Infinity Dance, Marshall’s aim is to combine the ritualistic moves of these ancient circle dances with today’s reincarnated versions of traditional behaviours such as online beauty tutorials, celebrity culture, plastic surgery and online dating. The movements of the performers collide with the abstract markings of the painting to create a portal between the first human expressions / rituals and today’s incarnations.
Marshall invited Hemming-Lowe to collaborate with her on the choreography and production of this performance in March 2019. They have worked together over the past two months, drawing together ceremonial group dancing and movement from across the world and drawing comparisons with the modern tech-led culture of individualism and vanity.
Hemming-Lowe has drawn upon her Contemporary Theatre and Dance training to lead the performers through a series of physical exercises drawn from 21st century movement practitioners such as Jacques Lecoq, Jerzy Grotowski and Rudolf Laban. Focused on the themes and ideas surrounding Marshall’s concept, specifically rituals and gestures of the past and present, the outcome is a mix of improvised movement, devised by the performers, and learnt ritualistic circle motifs.
By Aimee Valentine Marshall in collaboration with Laura Hemming-Lowe
Movement direction / Choreography: Laura Hemming-Lowe
Devised by the Performers; Monika Błaszczak, Jennie Boultbee, Duane Nasis, Darren Payne, Alice Esme Watson
Costume Designers: Laura Hemming-Lowe, Aimee Marshall, Zillah Swatridge
Music Credits (in order):
Ian William Craig – Before Meaning Comes
Dialect - Three Sisters Theme (mix from DJ Kicks – Forest Swords ed.)
Toyko Prose, FIS – The Truths (mix from DJ Kicks – Forest Swords ed.)
Demdike Stare – Mnemosyne (mix from DJ Kicks – Forest Swords ed.)
Actress – Untitled 7 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Milk
The Poetics of Wurst is a photography, video art and audio project exploring the relationship between meat, sex and the body. 2016, Berlin and London.
This project exists on instagram in full - click here for more.
Performers / Collaborators : Ruth Cody & Mariona De Lamo
Beauty / Life has been created through Laura's research into the notion of self betterment, self-help and self 'perfection'.
The performance, photography and film works draw on contemporary pop culture often to reveal the strange and absurd occurrences within the world of health and beauty. By disrupting and misplacing mass beauty ideals, rituals and procedures her aim is to open questions and debate around issues of the body, beauty and representation of gender.
Beauty/Life is a site responsive work dependent upon the context, geographical location and physical environment.
In the Beauty / Life Taster Sessions (performance) the audience are invited into an intimate setting where the beauty and life style coach Lauretta Hart and her assistants take the participants on an immersive sensory journey in how they can be ‘happier’, ‘healthier’ and more ‘successful’ with her beauty and lifestyle tips and treatments. What starts out as three pristine doll-like beauticians slowly disintegrates and the body becomes a canvas for food substances that are placed on it.
Beauty/Life has been performed at Laban (2012), SMASH LAB (2012) Camden People's Theatre (2013) & Belgrade National Theatre (2014).
"wonderfully mad, messy, brilliant and amazingly hilarious."
(TOTAL Theatre Review )
“Hilarious, beautiful, ridiculous and imaginative, Laura Hemming-Lowe delivers a concise and articulate comment on the beauty industry and the confused notion of what constitutes attractiveness today.”
(TOTAL Theatre Review )
“…witty, dark and exacting social comment with confidence and deftly constructed performance methods. A brilliant evening of mess, madness, beautiful images, laughs and political punches.”
(TOTAL Theatre Review )
“A fascinating, relaxed, beautiful car crash”
(Bryony Kimmings- Artist)
Still from live performance
Laban, 2012
Photograph by Ludovic Des Cognets
Still from live performance
Laban, 2012
Photograph by Ludovic Des Cognets
Still from live performance
Laban, 2012
Photograph by Ludovic Des Cognets
Photograph still from performance
2012
by KH
Still from live performance
CPT, 2013
Photograph by William Pine
Still from live performance
CPT, 2013
Materials: tights, lamb chops, eggs, sellotape, berries, lemons, mushy peas, gravy, bacon, chicken, fake-tan, flour, female body
Still from live performance
CPT, 2013
Photograph by William Pine
Artist: Laura Hemming-Lowe
Performer / Model: Mariona De Lamo
Camera / Sound: William Pine
2015
Artist: Laura Hemming-Lowe
Performer / Model: Mariona De Lamo
Camera / Sound: William Pine
2015
Artist / Editor: Laura Hemming-Lowe
Performer / Model: Mariona De Lamo
Camera & Sound: William Pine
One More Question seeks to create an inter-generational dialogue between grandparents and grandchildren by creating space and time to ask essential questions surrounding love, food, leadership, justice and technology, focusing on our relationship with the internet and how it has changed our experience and perception of the world. This audio art project was commissioned by Kaleider in 2014. It was created by Laura Hemming-Lowe in collaboration with her Granny Fet & Kaleider.
This is my Granny Fet in Africa where she lived with her six children after the war until her husband was killed in a car accident. She's never cried about it.
Listen to One More Question: Episode 1 teaser here:
Read by Granny Fet
Listen to the full episode here
TIPPING POINT: is a performance video that Laura made in Devon in a field where she was born. It expresses Laura’s feelings of displacement, having moved from the city to the country-side and struggling to come to terms with change. In an attempt to express the feelings of despair and anxiety she set about creating a movement sequence playing with the architecture of the natural world and how it can reflect and heal our internal struggles.
TIPPING POINT was screened at IMAGINE IF THAT SAID... a group exhibition of work by ten artists at Safehouse II in Peckham 12th - 15th May. The show was curated by SPLEEN combining painting, sculpture, video, performance, printmaking and performance.