Harmonic Anatomies/Wet Mouths, 2019

Improvisation with Sarah Rose Bird, Rene McBrearty, Maggie Nicols, Heather Bonnie Reid and Danni Spooner

Commissioned for PROJECTIONS, Tyneside Cinema

This collective improvisation explored the potential of female sound in a posthuman context, leaky bodies and the interplay of bodily fluids, voice, wetness and fluidity. Using a range of lo-fi and hi-tech media, from sock puppets, slime, movement to hydrophones and amplified/digitally manipulated noise, Harmonic anatomies/wet mouths brought together 6 practitioners from a range of disciplines to explore the collectivity formed by womxn improvising together.

Drawing on personal experience and a range of texts from Anne Carson, Audre Lorde, Pauline Oliveros and Elizabeth Groys, the improvisation existed somewhere between a polyphonic performance, a lecture and a puppet play. During the performance, a large projection of medical hysteroscopy examinations and internal footage of female opera singers' vocal chords bathed the space in a gloopy glow.

You can read an interview about the performance with Adam Pugh, Director of Artists' Moving Image at Tyneside Cinema here.

This performance is part of an ongoing body of work and research entitled Harmonic Anatomies.

Images: stills from video documentation of performance

Camera: Sarah Bouttell

Sound technician: Oliver Sutherland

Video edit: Bryony Gillard