Join Rashaad Newsome for a preview of his new moving image work Hands Performance, as the artist shares the ideas and process behind the new Somerset House commission with artist, curator and writer Tamar Clarke-Brown - an animated short exploring the ways in which racially marginalised identities are creating space, and the act and importance of self-authorship for those historically erased or written into oppression.
Working with a team of Black Queer ASL interpreters, various vogue fem performers, flex dancers and motion capture technologists, across its six-minute runtime Hands Performance sees Newsome translating original poetry into a movement dataset exhibiting the uniquely Black and Queer aspects of sign language.
Rashaad Newsome will join the Somerset House Studios community from May until August 2023, using the residency to develop and produce his new Channel commission.