I Am From Reykjavik

Sonia Hughes a Black woman sits in front of a concrete wall. She is wearing a black zip up hoodie and a knit beanie.

I Am From Reykjavik

by Sonia Hughes

When: Saturday 15 June
Time: 11.00am – 4.00pm
Where: Hastings Town Centre
Ticket: Free, pop down anytime during the perfomance to see how its developing.

Part-protest, part-sculpture, part-ceremony.

Sonia will arrive in Hastings to see how it is here?

To see if she could feel at ease and at home amongst us. She’s wondering how  to feel at home when this is not where you are from. How to allow her whole self to be present without compromise or apology. Is Hastings a welcoming or a hostile environment?

She arrives with all the things she needs to build herself a shelter. She’ll build and take it down in a day. You can witness how Sonia and Hastings get on. 

Someday we may all have to move. How will that go?

 “With ‘I Am From Reykjavik’, Hughes manages to be at once open and closed, serene and defiant. The installation is deceptively simple, its emotional power only becoming apparent when you take the time to sit with the house, with the artist… ★★★★★ The Skinny

Part of our co-curated ‘BLACK JOY!’ programme within Knotty, a festival of performance for the adventurous from 6 to 16 June 2024.

Check out the full ‘BLACK JOY! Up Close and Personal’ programme on the Playing the Race Card website.

 
  • Sonia Hughes is currently Associate Artist to Festspillene i Nord-Norge in Harstad. Previously she collaborated with Quarantine as writer, performer, co-creator including their award-winning Susan & Darren and Wallflower.

    She also wrote Jeremy Deller’s MIF17 opening event, What is the City, but the People? She has been doing this art shbizzle for over 20 years only now becoming an artist in her own right. What do we want?!... Is a poster exhibition of people’s desires for a proximate Utopia, made for the Great Exhibition of the North with Lisa Mattocks.

    Jo Fong and Sonia’s project Neither Here Nor There is essentially a series of questions and conversations between the audience about what concerns them and in the end what really matters. These two works and IAFR mark out new territories Sonia is interested in – addressing the complexity of big ideas but close up with an active co-creative audience.

  • Sonia Hughes will be building her shelter in Hasting’s Town Centre in a level area.

  • Architect: Lee Ivett

    Photographer: Solomon Hughes

    Website designer: Lisa Mattocks

    Dress designer: Claudette Joseph

    Teacups: Susan Cragg

    Artist midwives: Linda Brogan, Adeola Dewis, Juliet Ellis, Jo Fong, Rabab Ghazoul, Owen Griffiths, Jane Mason, Humberto Velez, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Fiona Wright

    Production Manager: Greg Akehurst/Rob Athorn

    Producer: Richard Morgan

    A Spill Festival, Jerwood Arts And Lift Commission. In Partnership With Festspillene I Nord-Norge, Spring Performing Arts Festival, Ilt Festival And Royal Docks.

  • View the full Knotty 2024 Programme

 
 

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