Culture, creativity and everyday life
Culture is a collective part of everyday life, a way to express, feel and manage the ups and downs of life like birth, ageing, love and death in meaningful ways; we do this openly with others, with whom we form part of a community.
This conviction continues to fascinate me and contributes to my practice and research, exploring an alternative to the culture that is given, taught or done for us. I am looking for ways to readdress how we value people’s creativity, alongside everyone’s right to produce culture and restore our agency to make and explore collectively.
I am interested in how culture evolves from people’s interconnectedness with nature and the environment. I am fascinated by the making processes of craft, the selection of plants, how we work with them and the myths and stories that emerge from these activities that connect us to nature and our surroundings. Traditional practices - whether baskets, fishing nets or myths - often align across different cultures.
I believe that for culture to re-emerge in new and meaningful ways it must be allowed to be messy, with space to explore and with no specific endpoint or objective. It is meaningful because it is simply part of life.
“Culture is ordinary; that is the first fact. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. […] We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life — the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning — the special processes of discovery and creative effort. Some writers reserve the word for one or other of these senses; I insist on both, and on the significance of their conjunction.” Raymond Williams
Background
I am interested in movement found in ordinary everyday activity, particularly crafts and how these movements connect to memories of past experiences and people. Before crafts, I had a career as a dance artist, choreographer and movement specialist working with cultural institutions including the Royal Ballet and Siobhan Davies Dance. In 2020 I decided to take a career break and embarked on an MA in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths University.
On completing my MA, I was offered an artistic residency with Arbeit Studios in Hackney Wick, which invites local artists with sustainable and ecological approaches to build connections with the garden and the local community through their creative practice. Using natural fibres gathered near my home I explored traditional weaving crafts and their connection with culture, identity and our relationships to nature, particularly in urban environments; this lead to several workshops and a gallery and outdoor public exhibition.
My career as a dance artist, choreographer and movement specialist explores movement found in everyday activities - walking, gestures and touch. This fascination has influenced my choreographic work, which has been presented as large-scale performances, soundscapes, photography and film. My movement practice influences my work in craft exploring how repeated patterns passed on in early life connect with embodied memories of past experiences and people, highlighting potential connections between generations and cultural traditions.