Following the launch of Stryx VR gallery space in 2020, Stryx ran SPOT VR Residency running between 4th December 2021 until 31 January 2022.

Untitled Performance / The Little Girl Who Said ‘Hi’
For my SPOT VR Residency, I explored the masquerade, characterised by masks, dances, and chants, I am interested in the Gelede performed by the Yoruba-Nago community, which pays homage to women - especially older women. The masquerade is used as satire to criticise antisocial behaviour. The Gelede is  ironic and performed during special occasions, harvests and epidemics.

Using an existing piece, Untitled Performance, as an entry point to explore how the masquerade and performance can be employed to perform strength and vulnerability, irony and satire. The Spot programme with Stryx will act as an experimental space to examine how performance, VR tech and making may inform my practice.

"The install Treasure is undertaking over December 2021 and January 2022 is titled: The Little Girl Who Wrote ‘Hi’ and draws on a subchapter of the same name of Chapter four, The Weather, In The Wake; On Blackness and Being, Christina Sharpe.

"Sharpe shows how the history of anti-black violence haunts present-day life by using The Slave Ship as a marker to categorise how contemporary Black lives in the diaspora have fewer resources represented through layers of society. Sharpe's study argues that the past predominates, and an ongoing history is embodied and embedded within territories and social stratification.

The install uses original text pages from "Stones Justice Manual" that she found in a skip outside a law office in central Birmingham. Like so many who have had to adapt and change over the past year, the company was either going into liquidation or moving. The pages are incredibly light and delicate, containing the same fragile, weighty materiality found on Bible pages.

"This opportunity was open for artists, performers, makers, crafters of Black heritage. This was a paid opportunity providing 8 week residency including access to space, curatorial and technical support for one early career and one mid-career artist. Within this residency, artists were invited to explore ideas, develop their research and create new work to experiment physically and digitally with the VR space. Previous experience working in digital / VR enviroment was not necessary. 

StryxVR is a Virtual Reality gallery created for the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset created by Stryx gallery with VR developer Ben Neal (Psicon Lab)"

an untitled performance

in recognition of black feminist , bell hooks , this video performance explores the notion of care through experience, employing William S. Burroughs Cut Up technique to generate new experimental meaning.

vvvvvvvv

an untitled performance 

your name points to a default condition of artistic practice marking an epoch where ancestral memory imbued itself , possibly , into a \ mycorrhizal network / , where manifestations saunter through our imaginations and tenderly escape us . 

for this reason you remain , \ untitled /. 

from this past , in response to the presence , you conjure hopes and dreams into the future . although , in saying this , there is nothing linear about you . you are unpolished and unfinished , made from materials upcycled , as a coping mechanism in response to losing your head , mind and marbles . pandemics have that effect on the nervous system . maybe that is why you chose lime >  a hue between green and yellow to boost a feeling of liveliness , and self-confidence , while at the same time expressing the feelings of loss and sorrow . 

you ’re my binge drinking , promiscuous nights out  > a barrier between locations .

you are a catharsis to alleviate the pressure . your dance is your voice .  

you have the power to recall childhood memories  > the draped clothing over your head adorns the innocent yearning for : farrah fawcett blond flowing locks. the dragging sound of brush against woollen sleeves , drowns out political speeches othering your pride .  in your performative seclusion ,  the back of your hands flick against the material hanging beside your small  brown face 

pushing it back over your shoulders , one sleeve at a time to emphasise the drama of flicking hair . this masquerade acts as a ritual layering . straightening out a framing of

 { shame }  

embraced inside curly brackets to keep it free from harm , cocooned inside a sentence , remaining visible to - the elephant in the room - safeguarding Being . ur strength lies here , dormant in between seasons . 

you are unpolished and unfinished 

^^^^^^^^