Hestia by Amaara Raheem, 2014. Photo: Michelle Outram
hestia
Amaara Raheem / Live performance at Asia House, London 2014.
Creativeworks London ‘Entrepreneur as Residence’ Award in collaboration with choreographer, Christopher Matthews to co-create series of residencies and new work on theme of ‘Artist as Nomad’.
Artist as Nomad was a hybrid arts project made in collaboration choreographer Christopher Matthews, and National Teaching Fellow Dr. Sara Houston at University of Roehampton, 2013-2014.
Seeking to challenge out-dated perspectives on assumptions on what a dance-artist can do, create or achieve in the 21st C Artist as Nomad brought together three diverse dance practitioners to think through a series of question in relation to mobility, movement and labour. The project extended out to include independent artists to consider the nature of mobility, cultural cartography, creative citizenship and what to pack when making work on the road.
Together they activated a series of propositions to seed new ways of exploring artistic, creative and social entrepreneurship. Working with concepts of mobility, creative citizenship, and dance education they were interested in questioning notions of labour in an increasingly productivity driven arts market. Broadly, the project asked how can mobility support individual or collective notions of cultural citizenship, connect to community and increase productivity in the creative economy? By examining multiplicity of concerns around the term ‘nomadism’, Artist as Nomad questioned existing frameworks of creative and social and creative entrepreneurship, offering a more fluid dialogue and programme of activities to debate these vital themes.
As part of the final installation at Asia House Christopher and Amaara collaborated on a screendance installation. Occupying spaces and sites they created a ‘dialogue’, responding to each other’s histories of movement through movement. Amaara presented solo, Hestia.
Part of Artist as Nomad installation and performance at Asia House, 2014.