Simeon Barclay
Bus2move
Workplace Foundation
19 – 21 West Street
Gateshead, NE8 1AD
21 September - 9 November 2019
Wednesday - Saturday, 12 - 5pm
In his first institutional solo exhibition in the North East of England, Simeon Barclay presents a new body of work informed by research into the internationally renowned Phoenix Dance Theatre. Phoenix Dance Theatre is the UK’s longest standing contemporary dance company outside London. Founded in 1981 in inner city Leeds by three black British dancers, it has grown to be a key Northern forerunner in contemporary dance.
From the visual spectacle of contemporary dance theatre to the communal experience of the night club dance floor, Bus2move combines costume, film and video, photography, lighting and sound. Barclay's interest in dance centres on the construction of masculinity, with particular focus on the way popular perceptions and stereotypes become defined, contested and encoded upon the male body.
Barclay undertook a research residency at the internationally renowned Phoenix Dance Theatre based in Leeds to inform the creation of new artwork for the exhibition. Focusing on choreography; sound design; costume; lighting and stage design, this research informed a series of new installations which continue Barclay's ongoing interest with the complexity of subjectivity and how these states of consciousness are refracted through race, class and received notions of identity.
The exhibition has been produced in partnership with The Tetley, Leeds and Turnpike, Leigh and is supported by Henry Moore Foundation.
