performance – Mark Leahy

‘What shall we call it?’ for First Spark

Shelley Hodgson and I are making a radio show for Soundart Radio’s First Spark Festival 2025. For broadcast on Sunday 2nd February, the programme will mix recordings, conversation and songs. Playing with ideas of names and naming as a point of beginning, connecting to First Spark’s occurence at Imbolc, a new year, a new beginning, we will look at naming ceremonies, giving names and changing names, and the idea of naming a year. The mix will include references to the film Morvern Callar, the novel 4,3,2,1 by Paul Auster, Ali Smith’s latest novel Gliff, and we will play songs with references to names and beginnings.

https://soundartradio.org.uk/firstspark

‘twiceness’ at SOAK Live Art

Shelley Hodgson and I performed ‘twiceness’ as part of a very full programme for SOAK Live Art at Leadworks, Plymouth on Thursday 25th July. There was a large and enthusiastic audience, and the other performers included Sam Richards, Cristina Varga, Charlie Cornforth and others. Shelley and I will now put ‘twiceness’ to one side as we consider what we want to do next; though one plan is to make a radio version of the piece.

Thanks to Kerry Priest and Sarah Blissett for organising the event. Photos by Natalie Raven.

workshop at Live Art Ireland

In the week of June 10th, I will lead a two-day workshop for Live Art Ireland. Participants will be in residence at Milford House, and will have spent the previous week working with Marilyn Arsem. We will work with ideas of trace, score, notation and mapping to look at how performance endures or is lost, what we hold onto, and what can be passed on or let go. Using drawing, actions, sharing and witnessing, we will make a body of performance writing.

Considering Time in Performance, Saturday 15th June, 12.00 to 21.00hrs.

There will be a sharing and showing of work by participants at Live Art Ireland on Saturday 15th June. The artist participants are: Ann Conmy, Carlos Tejo, Georgia Lale, Alisa Alho, Marianne Marcote, Natalie Rise, Nicole Panneton, Rob La Frenais, Silke Michels, and Deej Fabyc.

Tickets are available on a Pay What You Choose basis via Eventbrite HERE

‘twiceness’ with Shelley Hodgson

On Wednesday 22nd May as part of the student organised Mayfest at Plymouth University, Shelley Hodgson and I will present ‘twiceness’. This is a new performance work we have been working on over the past while. It isn’t ‘finished’ at this point, but it is at a stage that we are happy to share it.

Two performers are present, in the space, as themselves, and as participants in an act of communication. Blocks of information, of narrative, of action, combining the found, the given, and the made, are built into a sequence of telling and showing. The performance questions interaction, engaging with gesture, with doubling, with repetition, with exchange. Underlying the performers’ relationship is awareness of loss and gaps, what is missed or missing, what doesn’t carry across.

The work asks questions that the performers unpick, rework, worry at. How do we tell each other things? How do we know we mean the same? How do we move between registers and codes, adapting and adjusting to fit, to ease, to stick? What happens if we try to do it again? Moving between choreographed passages and improvisation, the piece engages the audience with consideration of what it takes to get along with each other.

‘twiceness’ is a new performance by Shelley Hodgson (writer/sound artist) and Mark Leahy (performer/writer). The two have been aware of each other’s practice for some years but had not found a way to work together. This piece arises from collaborative working, the joint development of ideas, and finding a form for live presentation.

Performance details: 1930hrs on May 22nd 2024 at The House Studio, University of Plymouth. Free tickets available via Eventbrite.

artist talk at University of Plymouth

I will give an artist talk for The Fine Art Department at University of Plymouth today, 6th March 2024. Titled, ‘Performance Process and Materials: Making Work Happen’ the presentation is aimed mainly at undergraduate Fine Art students.

“Using examples from my practice over recent years, I will look at how you might consider relationships between studio practice and making live art or performance, and how you might present live work. Projects develop differently, they originate from different beginnings or get nudged by circumstances. Work gets shared in different forms, to different audiences or contexts. Starting with process and materials, ideas we are familiar with from painting or drawing or moving image, I will discuss my engagement with text, actions, voice and body. Alongside this, I will talk about various platforms or ways of sharing and showing performance-related work.”