Voice and Breath: Olivia Douglass

9 Mar 2024 7.30-9pm

Overview

Explore dreaming and desire through poetry, music and performance in the Turbine Hall

Ordinary Dreams is a new project by writer, poet and artist Olivia Douglass, an ongoing experiment in merging poetic practice with sound, performance and installation. Originally manifesting as a short film and song, the project will debut as a live performance at Tate Modern. Rooted in Black and queer experiences, Ordinary Dreams explores the tension between day-to-day and radical visions of life and desire. It looks to dreaming as a way to create knowledge and shape reality.

This iteration of Ordinary Dreams takes shape through collaboration between UK-based poets and artists, with guest poets Remi Graves, Otamere Guobadia and Munesu Mukombe, together with contributions by Douglass and a newly composed live score by FAUZIA.

Douglass poses the question of what ‘ordinary’ means to Black and queer people, while navigating a world in which living without being vigilant is still a dream. Situated on Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall Bridge and held by El Anatsui’s Hyundai Commission: Behind the Red Moon, Ordinary Dreams continues Douglass’s ongoing commitment to articulating alternative visions of liberated Black queer experiences beyond colonial frameworks.

Ordinary Dreams is the second part of a two-night programme titled Voice and Breath, which presents contemporary artistic practices working at the intersection of performance, poetry and music.

The first part of the programme is a performance by artist, poet and composer JJJJJerome Ellis on 7 March.

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