Unsolved: a research workshop led by artist Jo Fong and Das Clark’s DAR
Happy New Year!
DAR and Jo begin 2024 in the studio on a new work called A Brief History of Difference.
They will be hosting an Open Studio on the 11th January, 3-5pm in the Basement at Newport’s Riverfront Theatre
Feeling different and being seen as different is complicated business. It can be exciting, distressing, temporary, permanent, liberating, advantageous, dangerous and a cause for celebration. A Brief History of Difference is an interactive theatre/performance piece rooted in conversation, knowledge sharing, questioning and personal narrative that seeks to open up new ways of thinking about and experiencing what it means to be different and to find a sense of belonging as a person of difference.
Part creative workshop, part conversation, the session will use physical and discursive tasks drawn from the creative process. Jo and Dee invite you to join them in considering some tricky questions around the subjects of difference, identity, positioning and belonging. In this workshop we will move, share, listen, play, be curious and keep in mind that our key questions will, most likely, remain unsolved and that that’s ok!
“The emerging artistic practice is an evolving, collaborative approach which puts ideas around belonging or forming community in the forefront. Each time we share this with people the learning around this project moves forward and begins to form.” Jo and DAR
Who is the session suitable for?
This workshop is for anyone interested in different perspectives. Everyone aged 16+ is welcome and especially people who diverge from the norm in any way and their friends and allies!
How to book
To reserve your space, please email g.clark627@btinternet.com
Some quotes from a previous Brief History of Difference research workshop
“Great to see stories being told that dismantle/challenge Otherness. Worth it if even one person feels seen through the specifics of your story.”
“Loved the embracing of the unsolvedness”
“I will take home the exploration of labels and how we assign these and our response to the labels assigned to us”.
A Brief History of Difference, brought to you by Das Clarks and Jo Fong with Becky Davies, is an interactive theatre piece rooted in conversation, knowledge sharing, questioning, personal narrative and performance. linktr.ee/abhodifference
Jo Fong has been dancing, moving and making for 30 years. She’s a Creative Associate artist with the Wales Millennium Centre and her creative work reflects the need in these times for people to come together.
Recent performances and events; How Shall We Begin Again? Ways of Being Together, Neither Here Nor There, To Tell You the Truth, Our Land, What Will People Need? Nettles: How to Disagree? and The Sun’s Come Out created in collaboration with artist Sonia Hughes. Marathon of Intimacies with artist Anushiye Yarnell. Jo is currently touring The Rest of Our Lives, a performance created with clown and circus maker George Orange.
Ways of Being Together has gone on to become an artist-led community, creating space and time to reconnect, repair, replenish, exploring performance making and co-creation. The annual convergence is layered, centring learning, support, “coming out” and actioning change.
DAR is a 54 year old neuro-atypical, queer, post-binary hybrid. They have worked in the past as a carer, social worker and researcher. DAR is a co-director of Das Clarks (formerly Mr and Mrs Clark), a non-traditional arts and theatre making company who have worked with a range of communities in South Wales. DAR and other members of the Das Clarks collective are currently working in HMP Parc delivering their Creative Roots project which provides prisoners with opportunities for creativity, art making and stillness in their daily living spaces. DAR started learning bass at the start of the year and now plays in a band, which proves the old adage that it’s never too late!