performance – Creative & dance journal

Crop trials with biochar and the residuals art series

The residuals series of art works/performances used biochar granules that were re-purposed as artists charcoal for drawing. The series ran parallel to crop trials of potatoes with biochar – which acts as a plant fertiliser. The abstract for a scientific paper about these trials in 2024 is presented here which was developed with my collaborator Karl Wallendszus in 2025.

Dance & Movement Research 2024: dance and poetry workshop

The poet Francis Boua join me, dancer Jo Dyer and photographer Hugh Pryor at the Old Fire Station dance studio in Oxford on Friday 19 January 2024 for a dance and poetry workshop. Here’s a film clip from it. And yes, it took me more than a year to obtain the permissions for the use of the film so I might create this post!

Residuals #10 Light

In January 2025 – a year after starting the Residuals series, I used performance and long exposure photography to record light – its reflection from the surfaces of moving bodies, as a residual – including darkness and shadow too! Here are presented these ‘light graphs’ from the session at Goldsmiths CI at Goldsmiths, University of London on Saturday 18 January.

Residuals #7 Draw Potato Harvest

In 2024, I conducted a crop trial of potatoes and bio-char (charcoal) in my allotment garden in Oxford, UK. In September, it was time to harvest the potatoes and entact a performance: drawing the produce from the soil through dance and movement; and creating a drawing – a potato drawing. The performance was with the Unknown Performer – a person who prefers not to be named, from 19 August 2024 and other days in August/September 2024.

Residuals #6 Shadow Mirror

The Residual series #1 – #5, had all used charcoal on paper for mark-making, or as we might otherwise say, charcoal was used for marking the performance!

In Residuals #6 then shadow was the mark-making element. It was performed at OVADA, Osney Mead, Oxford on Tuesday 13 August 2024. The idea of a mirror dance is partly based on the notion that individuals in social relations naturally mirror each other resulting in symmetric patterns. It’s also such a simple dance that it hardly seems like a dance at all – which it is!

Residuals #5 Blocking & Exclusion

Like all of the residuals performances, Residuals #5 was co-created – but this time with an artist who prefers not to be named, and who I’ll address in this article as the Unknown Artist. The idea of blocking movement – which in the visual arts would be ‘masking’ – also has a social narrative too. This performance was at OVADA, Osney Mead, Oxford on Tuesday 6 August 2024.

Residuals #3 – Landscape

On 20 April, the third residuals performance was held outside in the gardens of Dartington Hall, Devon. The four artists including me, had worked together on the second residuals performance but the exterior setting for the third performance brought it into the landscape and closer to nature. A film of the performance was produced by Sean McGrath.

Residuals #2 – Dartington

On March 17 at the Shippon Artists Studios, Dartington Estate, Devon, there was the second residuals performance – Residuals #2. A co-created charcoal drawing was produced as well as a performance by its four artists – which included me.

Residuals #1: drawings

Beside the dance and movement making of the Residuals #1 performance, it created a large charcoal drawing about 3 metres by 1.5 metres in size. There were also numerous photographs made by my co-creator John Hazel and me of its surface during and after the performance.

Residuals #1: performance

I dived into the surface of the paper. Beneath me, carbon residuals (charcoal) assisted my passage as I slide across the white paper, parting the material and marking the paper. John Hazel who was co-creating the charcoal drawing with me, followed by stepping and drawing with his shod foot. The dance studio at the Old Fire Station, Oxford was our performance venue for this ‘drawing-dance’ on Tuesday 16 January 2024.