The Enigma of Arrival

Enigma of Arrival was our collaboration with Diaspora’s Now a performance art collective from the Royal College of Art and Decolonise Art History Cambridge University at Gallery V Cambridge in February 2022

A happening curated by and involving Bread Theatre and Film Company, Decolonise Art History and Diasporas Now: ‘The title is inspired by V. S. Naipaul’s novel and John Akomfrah's subsequent interpretation in 'Vertigo Sea' (2015). The program interprets experiences of displacement into performances, and stands in solidarity with all diasporas from the past and present. The program also encourages rethinking of the performing space and the role of the performers.’ Wringing Metamorphosis combined material from Omphalos with scenes from The Trojan Women (then still a work in a progress), to build a mythological world of horse heads, sacrificial brides, white leather heels and daffodils in the intimacy of the gallery space, using ancestral storytelling and performance as ritual to explore the symbiosis of dispossession and regeneration.

Dancers/Choreographers: Blue Pieta, Charis Taplin

Music: Ynys Barnard Masterson, Elinor Ardern, Jessica Raja-Brown

Photos and program description by Winnie Zhu.