Poiesis of Weathering is a sculptural performance installation supported by an Arts Council research fund. The project is interested in finding new ways to address racism, combining sculpture, performance and sound with a theoretical, speculative narrative through scriptwriting.

The work confronts the complexities of racism by framing experience and shaping artistic practice. The sculptural assemblages are made of ceramic and represent surreal body abstractions. They are attached to the performers’ costumes and become extended layers worn like a second skin..

The sculptural objects also act as standalone pieces. In this view, the body is regarded as a repository of memories, like archaeological strata comprising shared and personal layers through linear and nonlinear narration. The work pays homage to African traditions,  namely the Gelede mask, where the performer wears a headdress, often veiling the face. The performance is a provocation to purpose the invisible within the visible, illuminating strength within fragility, juxtaposing care with ferocity. The ceramic sculptures are created in consideration of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold. Rather than hide scars, this tradition enhances them, pointing out imperfections and weaknesses, unleashing strength through vulnerability. 

Poiesis, as a practice that syncretises thought, spirit, and body, also invites our attention to the lived materials and their historical and personal layering, echoing, in part, the profound insights of abolitionist Quobna Ottobah Cugoano. Using AI text-to-speech to generate disparate characters, accompanied by movements that drive the dramaturgy, the performance is witnessed and choreographed, shaping choreography as an act of refusal. This use of the artificial voice also serves as a means of emotional distancing, allowing the audience to witness states of weathering. Ceramic tea cups and teapots are repurposed to imbue the material with colonialism and enslavement histories. Taking the shape of a nose, reminiscent of the Venetian Naso Peste mask and snake eye emblem, the pieces form the headdress, while the breastplates are attached to the body.  Each object, inscribed with a strong colonial bearing, is positioned during the performance to mark a new meaning. The costume, made by stitching together suit jackets, drags the material into a feminine garment to subvert the material's politics alongside its designated gender role. The sleeves and folds in the suit jackets appear mask-like, adding gravitas to the ritual elements of the performance.

Poiesis of Weathering combines different mediums and elements to create a hybrid experience, activating the space with kinetic energy and immersive participation. It fuses ritualistic healing elements with real-life occurrences in an attempt to centre the internal struggles of human nature, highlighting cracks as spiritual, historical composites provocatively assembled in the spirit of Kintsugi.

The performance was presented as part of an ongoing practice-based research process, and was shared with a small invited group of peers and professionals working across performance, academia, and visual art, whose feedback informed subsequent iterations of the work.

Poiesis of Weathering is a deeply resonant work exploring the psychological impact of everyday experiences of racist violence through the use of surrealism, performance and narrative. With a careful regard to the use of materiality and objects, Treasure creates an opening or portal into her own psyche, an internal world that reflects the ongoing and collective horror that is the experience of anti-blackness in the external. 

Imani Mason Jordan, Languid Hands

From this process, I developed a series of short performance video sermons, drawing on Beverley Stoute’s theorisation of Black Rage as a reparative strategy that continues to inform my research.

.

.