Summer ’21 Newsletter: ShelTer & Alisoun Sings

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you’ve been having a joyful Summer this year reconnecting with all your favourite ones, despite the extremes of weather and continued virus spread.. I’ve had a lovely time reconnecting with friends, on the ground and in all sorts of ways. Some interesting work has also come out of it. Here are a few things I wanted to share with you.

 

 

 

        “ShelTer” (2021)

 

 

 

Sculptural manifesto. Shadows lengthen according to time of day. Shelters no shelter.

 

 

 

Commissioned by Vlatka Horvat & Tim Etchells as part of their “Not Standing in Place” group-show of temporary monuments. On view at Spektakel International festival, Zurich (19 August-8 September).

 

 

 

 

        “Convivial Tuning” (July 2021)

 

 

 

This is a new workshop for spoken group work that I put together for The Listening Academy’s sound research network. Throughout July it had listening bases in Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Berlin, Istanbul, Bergen. The London base was curated by Lucia Farineti who invited a truly interdisciplinary range of contributors. It took place in the lush Culpeper Community Gardens during the only week of heat we had here. It quickly turned into a heatwave before collapsing into tropical rainfalls then autumnal cold (19 – 23 July). Full programme

 

 

 

 

        Alisoun Sings at the New Chaucer Society (July 2021)

 

 

 

Return to base! It is for the NCS event in NY in 2006 that I was first invited by David Wallace and Charles Bernstein to take a poetic spin with Chaucer. Fantastic to be invited to the NCS event in Durham-online this year and read from my latest booklength pilgrim-activist’s adventures!

Kepen ones hat on: to refuse what’s coming down, b on the up & up, a front to speak, sayeth yes to something else, wear it loud wear it high!

 

 

Early Alyson Alisoun. 2009. Photo: Vicky Hawkins.

 

 

        “Practice Conversations” (July-August 2021)

 

 

 

This 7-week long workshop was limited to 10 practitioners and dedicated to open-ended process and project exchanges. An amazing experience: meandering and working slow as a group. It also marked the end of the year for my online lockdown workshops. All year I’ve offered creative and collaborative workshops and more than 250 people have tuned into these. It began with the Solitary to Solidary experiment in July 2020 until this July’s Practice Conversations. Summary here

A huge thank you to every single one of you who joined me during this demanding 2020/21 period and made these what they became: spaces for focused, thoughtful, exploratory work and exchanges.

 

 

 

        Online Creative Lab – to launch Autumn 2021

 

 

 

In fact, I’ve taken on workshop participants’ generous comments and helpful feedback seriously and will be launching an online creative lab this Autumn. It will offer live events, workshops of various lengths, and networking. The focus is on developing sustained arts practice through cultural awareness, contextual skills, encounters, and team building. More soon!

 

 

 

 

A Sonic Atlas Project