Dance is a universal language of expression. We dance alone, in the privacy of our own
homes, we dance together, in pairs and in groups, forming communities based on shared
likes and experiences. With a new, largely projection-based exhibition, Photoworks at
Peckham 24 explores the intersection between dance, music and movement through
contemporary photography, performance and video, celebrating how these freedoms of
expression help define different communities. Grounded in the consideration of dance as a
unifying and collective practice, the show spans club culture from the late 1980s to
contemporary work that considers the lasting impact of how dance spaces inform culture
today.
Beginning with works drawing on club culture from the late 1980s, Marie Barrett's work
Dance - State (1989), made in collaboration with young people in Derry at the height of the
Troubles, was first screened in the local nightclub Squires after Barrett realised the two most
visited places in the city were the nightclub and the job centre, before it went on to be shown
at the Hacienda in Manchester. Amar Ediriwira's The Final Night in Paradise (2017) uses
archival footage from the closing party of Paradise Garage in 1987, a legendary New York nightclub. Featuring a soundtrack by DJ Harvey, the work reveals a voyeuristic window into
the club, with appearances from Keith Haring, Larry Levan, Gwen Guthrie, Liz Torres and a
young ESG.
Moving into the contemporary influence of dance spaces, Bernice Mulenga's #friendsonfilm
amplifies the experiences of their peers, often within the club setting. The photo series uses
afro-documentary to capture club collectives including BBZ, Pxssy Palace and Aboe, which
centre black and queer bodies on the dancefloor and in the DJ booth. Grounded within a
consideration of dance as a unifying and collective practice, Mulenga's work sits in dialogue
with Lotte Andersen's moving image work. Sparked by her now disbanded night MAXILLA,
Andersen constructs social environments known as capture parties, which develop an ever
growing archive of human dynamics based around dance.
Exploring the complex interplay between public and private forms of dance, Rebecca
Salvadori's Lilian's Vow (2019) is a video made in occasion of British Iranian artist Lilian
Nejatpour's performance Choreophobia, originally staged in London's Somerset House in
September 2018. The performance investigates male dance practices in the Middle East,
which occured in public up until 1979 when public displays of dance were criminalised in
many places including Tehran. Using two female dancers to re-imagine the gendered
display of now banned Iranian solo improvised dance, Nejatpour juxtaposes a sampling of
movements from her upbringing in North England, and in particular her relationship with
Northern bassline. Lilian's Vow can be seen as a portrait of the relation between Salvadori
and Nejatpour and a reflection on the possible dialogue between their individual practices.
Nejatpour explores the pressures of the western gaze in defining dance and gender in the
Middle East; Salvadori interweaves personal narratives with footage that feels intimate and
unobtrusive.
