Listening Touch Performance still, 9 December 2022, presented at Attunement in Practice, an exhibition at Medleys, Berlin
Listening Touch is a one-to-one interaction with a touch guide and a performance installation made for gallery spaces. For a duration of 30 minutes participants are offered an opportunity to receive touch that is not wanting or expecting anything from them. They may rest, move and respond. Heightening receptivity to more subtle sensations, this hands-on experience serves to support cellular expansion, nervous system regulation, and attention to what the body innately knows and needs. In this participatory performance, the facilitating touch guides are trained somatic bodyworkers and Contact Improvisation dancers. Participation is voluntary and gallery spectators are advised to sign up in advance and can otherwise observe the sessions.
Listening Touch was first presented at Medleys, Chistinnenstraße 19a, Berlin as part of the exhibition 'Attunement in Practice', on the 9th Dec 2022, see video below, and subsequently in Festivalen13, in Gothenburg, Sweden, 6-8th Jan 2023.
For further documentation from both performances in Berlin and Sweden see pdf links below and visit: https://rosalindholgate-smith.com/listening-touch-2
For RAW video footage from Sweden performances see Practice Portfolio 3.1 on One Drive.
3.2 The Unveiling
The Unveiling performance still Medleys, Berlin, 6 November 2022, Video photography: Kéké Sol
3.2 The Unveiling is a slow ritual undressing of the layers beneath which we exist. In this ritual, performers are guided to explore the skin and the effects of touch as continuous, to be felt from the outside, through pores and orifices all the way through the connective tissue and into the digestive tract. It is approached as a somatic meditation in which focus is placed on maintaining continuous pressure in movements of sliding over surfaces, beginning with the ground, and then the fabric of one’s clothes. As slowly as possible and with sustained continuous pressure performers are then invited to undress themselves and each other, pausing at times to see and be seen by one another.
The Unveiling was first choreographed and performed at a Sex&Smoothies performance event in Berlin on 19 and 20 February 2022. I later facilitated the ritual in a 3-hour performance workshop format, at the Touch&Play festival on 3 August at the Earth Spirit Centre in the UK and later at the Taboo Festival in Germany on 7 June 2024. Following the workshops, participants could choose to perform the ritual for attendees of these festivals to witness.
The ritual I also developed and captured on film, with Contact Improvisers at Medleys artist residency venue in Berlin between October and November 2022. The short film which I edited together with filmmaker Taigo Trigo was screened at Molt Gallery in Berlin on 23 August 2023 and with permission from the performers, can be view below.
For video access the password is: Pause
3.3 The Pleasure Patchwork is an interactive soft sculpture, a crochet blanket made of worm-like, phallic and invaginated forms that can be turned inside out. Cocks up, down, and enfolded. Inspired by the skin, the blanket invites touch and explorations in receptivity and desire, questioning how much it is possible to feel as we move into the world and go about our everyday actions. Can we stay porous as we reach out for what we want?
The Pleasure Patchwork was exhibited at GlogauAIR project space in Berlin 24-25th Feb 2024 and later at Dorwich House Gallery 14-17th May 2025, with both exhibitions featuring a program of performances, workshops and an artist talk. For documentation from the exhibitions see the pdf links below and visit: https://rosalindholgate-smith.com/the-pleasure-patchwork.
The Pleasure Patchwork was also performed as part of the Making Change Symposium hosted by The Dancing Otherwise Network at Kingston University on 12th Feb 2025, featuring dancers Zoë Solomons, Rosalind Holgate Smith and the Musician Ansuman Biswas.
The Pleasure Patchwork, 24 February 2024, GlogauAIR Project Space, Berlin, Photography: Rich Serra
Further RAW video footage, can be found in Practice Portfolio 3.2 on OneDrive.