Beyond Jewellery. Performing the Body

Located within the field of contemporary art jewellery, this symposium explores the relationships between sculptural objects, the body and performance. In doing so, Beyond Jewellery offers a space to interrogate and reflect upon interdisciplinary projects interested in the body as a meeting place or nexus for collaboration. With a keynote from artist, researcher and body-centric sculptor, Di Mainstone, and talks spanning disciplines from textiles, dance, jewellery to sound and film, the point at which the themes of body, object and performance intersect are explored from myriad angles.

Speakers:
Di Mainstone, Caroline Broadhead and Angela Woodhouse, Dr Natalie Garret Brown and Zoe Robertson, Fo Hamblin, Jessa Fairbrother, Nikki Pugh, Noam Ben-Jacov, Michelle Jessop, John Moore, Katrin Spranger, Julia Schuster

Panels are chaired by:
Prof Sarah Whatley (Coventry University), Prof Jill Journeaux  (Coventry University), Prof Jivan Astfalck (Birmingham City University)

Following the Symposium, the audience is invited to join the flockOmania team in the Parkside Gallery, for an improvised durational performance and private view to celebrate this latest stop on flockOmania’s world tour. The exhibition showcases wearable objects which explore the relationship between jewellery, dance and performance. It was created by Zoe Robertson in response to a collaborative relationship with dance artists Dr Natalie Garrett Brown and Amy Voris. Their background in contemporary dance, movement improvisation and site based performance provided the catalyst for this body of work. The resulting jewellery is theatrically-sized to emphasise and explore themes relating to the scale and movement of the body.flockOmania2 will be hosted at the Parkside Gallery, Birmingham City University from Monday 22nd February to Friday 1st April 2016.

Symposium: Thursday, 17 March 2016 from 10:00 to 20:00

Performance: Thursday, 17 March 2016​  at 6pm and entry is free.

Please buy your ticket for the Symposium here.

It is organised in conjunction with the School of Jewellery (Faculty of Arts Design and Media, Birmingham City University) and the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE, Coventry University). Convened by Zoe Roberson and Sian Hindle (School of Jewellery) and Dr Natalie Garrett Brown (C-DaRE).