Join us for an evening of performances in response to Senga Nengudi’s exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery. The performers have been selected by movement researcher, artist and producer Claricia Parinussa, artist Natasha Ruwona and Fresh Fruit, the gallery’s peer-led programme for young adults.

6.15pm, Camilla Makhmudi, Anna Phillips and Myles Westman

6.45pm, Rosina Bonsu, Claricia Parinussa

7.15pm, Courtney Stoddart

7.45pm, Aya Kobayashi, Jer Reid

8-9pm, DJ Scotia

Aya Kobayashi is an independent dance artist working in the field of performance and movement exploration. She makes site specific work often collaborating with artists working in different mediums. She has presented her work in venues around the UK including Tate Modern as well as abroad.

Courtney Stoddart is a poet and singer passionate about dismantling hierarchy in all its forms. She intertwines historical, political and social discussion into rhythm and rhyme. Taking inspiration from the lyricism and format of old-school hip hop and rap.

Does/Doesn’t is a group performance from Camilla Makhmudi, Anna Phillips and Myles Westman which explores the politics of action and non-action.

Rosina Bonsu is a Glasgow based dance artist.

Claricia Parinussa is an Indonesian-Netherlands movement researcher, artist and producer based in Scotland.

Jer Reid makes composes and improvises music with dance.

DJ Scotia is the DJ subset of producer, performer and rapper Shaheeda Sinckler a.k.a NOVA SCOTIA the TRUTH. She merges different sounds to create a continuous mix, blending genres and following instincts – favouring a dark, bass-heavy atmosphere.

The event takes its title from a poem by Natasha Ruwona written in response to Senga Nengudi's exhibition:

a black body is only visible in the night
always visible against light
the world i exist within is consumed
by black
and
by white

how can my body shape shift?
shrink and stretch
to whatever i see fit
my performance
entitled
“code-switch”

a body pinned to a wall
left to hang and then to fall
our strange fruit ripened
then consumed
by all

how do the whites of walls highlight brownness and blackness?

each person has a use
for a colonised body
each person has a use
has a use

if i imagine my body
in the form of tights
brown - hard to find.
stretched. tired. fragile.
yet secure and strong
springing back to life
then
continuing to rise.

what does it mean to have a multi-purposeful body?

sand weights
don’t wait
to weigh
me
down

when hurston said

‘i feel most coloured when i am thrown against a sharp white background’

she put it best.
how does the gallery reflect
you?

Image: Senga Nengudi Ceremony for Freeway Fets, 1978. Documentation of performance and installation piece, Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles. Courtesy the artist; Lévy Gorvy, New York, London; and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Photo: Quaku/Roderick Young.