Friday 24 September – Saturday 4 December

Loop — a shape produced by a curve that bends round and crosses itself. A structure, series, or process, the end of which is connected to the beginning  

Looping — to form (something) into a loop or loops, to encircle 

Loopy — slang phrase for mad or irrational behaviour normally accompanied by  gestures  

Loophole — legal and contractual means of escape  

Loop the loop — on the roller -coaster  

Loopers — 2012 movie about time travel and altering history  

LOOP TV — a Summer 2021 prelude to this exhibition 

Loop, Looping, Loopy, Loophole, Loop the loop, Loopers. Can you have a performance without an audience? Sadly, we may be the continual and faithful audience to the performance of our own lives – perpetual spectators to our own performance. 

LOOP asks what is at stake in encountering and experiencing performance? And how is this experience negotiated: live and in person with the possibilty of close physical proximity? Or mediated, distanced, documented and transmitted via technology and screens? 

LOOP is an exhibition constituted by actions and gestures, choreographed and presented to audiences, defined by the body, the floor, the walls, the sound, the sensors, the womb, the book, by whirling, by dancing with nature, and by trying to position these practices in the loop of history. 

We don’t know what comes next but we want to perform again. We want to speak. To say something about subjectivity, class, race and gender at play. We are artists constructing narratives, histories, fictions and processes of being live, physical, virtual and mediated.  

But we are mindful of you. We are the audience. You are the audience. This is LOOP. 

Co-curated by Harold Offeh & Eastside Projects and Co-commissioned by Eastside Projects & Birmingham International Dance Festival 

Events as part of LOOP Exhibition

LOOP LAUNCH

Friday 24 September, 6-9pm (Free)

LOOP is an exhibition constituted by actions and gestures, choreographed and presented to audiences, defined by the body while Portals examines the display cabinet in West Indian front rooms as a site for domestic archiving, memory, and structuring futures.

From 7pm onwards, there’ll be live performances from Will Fredo, Samra Mayanja, Keiken and Harold Offeh with ample opportunity to see the shows and meet the artists.

FROM THE ARTISTS MOUTH 

Saturday 25 September, 2–3pm (Free)

Join exhibiting artists Phoebe Collings-James, Adham Faramawy, Will Fredo, Keiken, Samra Mayanja alongside Harold Offeh and Gavin Wade for an informal tour of our the newly launched group show LOOP.
‘From the Artists Mouth’ conversations are a great way to get behind the scenes and gain an insight into each artist’s practice, as well as their thinking around the work they are showing and the process of exhibition making.

BREAKFAST OPENING

Thursday 30 September, 8.30–10.30 (Free)

For the early risers, this breakfast opening is a chance to come and see the LOOP show at a different pace. Coffee, tea and pastries will be available during the morning. All are welcome.

Wednesday 29 September, 8.30–10.30 (Free) 

For the early risers, this breakfast opening is a chance to come and see the show at a different pace. Samara Mayanja’s work will be performed in the gallery alongside the other 4 artists. Coffee, tea and pastries for early birds, all welcome. 

LOOK OUT FOR

ONLINE AND IRL SYMPOSIUM:  New possibilities for performance 

Saturday 4 December, 11-1pm (Pay what you can (suggestion £7)

What is at stake in experiencing performance*? And how is this experience mediated, live and direct in close physical contact or mediated and transmitted via technology and screens? What does it mean to make performance, now in a pandemic and post-pandemic world? Where is performance made and shown, and by whose authorship?