Point Exit, Pumphouse Gallery, 2004
‘Point Exit’ was created in collaboration between myself and dance students Sade Edwards, Emilie Maurel, Emily Neal and Charlene Webster. It was shown at Trading Places, Pumphouse Gallery, London, 2004. https://welcomebb.sophiehope.org.uk/blog/archives/000001.html
Working closely together over the period of four months in spring 2004, during my residency at the Hackney Community College in London, the dancers and I explored issues related to home and exile, focussing on the key themes of memory, trauma and flight.
The work was true to the principle of equal collaboration: dancers and artist developed it together, putting in much of their own life experience as well as their individual artistic skills.
‘Point Exit’ is inspired by the medical reports of discrepancies in the accounts of asylum seekers due to their traumatic experiences. Starting from the premise that ‘we are all exiles from the past’, the dancers and the artist have delved into their own past, to explore the inconsistencies between the memory of the past and the present moment.
Although the work was based in dance form, it takes on many performative elements. During our creative journey, we combined experiments in walking awareness, simultaneous action, and drawing. The inspiration was sourced from texts by German playwright Heiner Muller and original accounts of asylum seekers, as much as from their personal stories.