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Black and white photo of Ethan McKenna. Ethan is wearing glasses and a striped top and is smiling at the camera

Residency feedback:

Thank you so much for this sanctuary, which sheltered me from the sun and being othered. My time was so nourishing, allowing me to think about the future echos of othered bodies. Might one day we inhabit the landscape in a harmonious way. Do the stars allow a bridge to glimpse that future? But most of all was the love, kindness and support and tea from the staff. I felt instantly at ease.

Alex Billingham

Alex Billingham creates work amongst the overlaps of Live art, Experimental Theatre, Film and Digital art. Their trans and disabled body collide and intermingle with their neurodiverse brain which they use to map out better ways of survival, making space for othered identities to exist and thrive. They enjoy an analogue approach to manipulating digital technology that allows them to explore a low-fi visual style that binds grime with glitter to make beautiful work.

Alex performs nationally and internationally and is currently developing a new theatrical show Salting the Wound.

Extract from Alex’s website:

Level center Derbyshire – Results – Fluid bodies 002

June 12th – 23rd 2023 I had a residency with Level center in Derbyshire building upon the initial research at Live Art Ireland and moving towards an exhibition / working studio at Brewery Tap Folkestone.

Below are some of my initial reactions to my time there and how the work developed. Going in I had expected water to be the core feature of this residency however the environment was dominated by a blistering heatwave and so I adapted my practice to respond.

Off kilter limbs Dance amongst the ruins of the future,

As the sun scorches our bones we find moments of rest beneath the undergrowth.

Constructing shelter from scraps of ambitions. Rebuilding ourselves with bracken and heath.

Waiting for the Deluge

waiting for the deluge

waiting for

waiting

Limbs twist and reform to taste the sun as tomorrow lingers on the lips.

Here the nine ladies hold the traces of bodies yet to move. Held within the land, where the moss and lichen grow.

Moving

Changing

Living