Saturday 26 February 2022, 8pm
Spirit Sigh presents ‘Dawta’. Combining experimental animation techniques and live musical performance (guitar and loops, plus drums from artist Bimpe Alliu), ‘Dawta’ is an AV show by artist animator and musician Jessica Ashman aka Spirit Sigh. The performance explores the idea of inherited cycles of trauma in Blackness through a time traveller called Dawta, inspired by archival research into trans-racial adoption and her own family history. ‘Dawta' is a story of escaping the past through the imagining of an unknown future; through the imagining of an unknown hope.
Jenny Moore, with members of her band Jenny Moore's Mystic Business and her punk choir F*Choir, will play a new set of piano songs recently recorded at St Barnabas Church, Dalston.
Photo by Sophie le Roux | www.sophielerouxdocu.com
Jessica Ashman is a multidisciplinary artist working in moving image, music, performance and installation. Her work focuses on creating experimental animated narratives that explore gender, identity and race, drawing on the wider stories of the Black British diaspora communities she was raised in, especially the histories and oral testimonies that have been lost or hidden in these communities. She is a BAFTA Scotland award winning animator (2011) and was nominated for an Arts Foundation Futures Awards for Experimental Short Animation (2020). Jessica releases music under the moniker of Spirit Sigh and was formerly in punk R&B band Secret Power, having played Decolonise Fest, Supernormal as well as supporting Big Joanie on their 2019 UK tour.
https://jessicaashman.com
https://spiritsigh.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jessica_a_ashman/
https://www.instagram.com/spirit.sigh/
As well as being a drummer, Bimpe Alliu is a Conceptual Artist and Illustrator working in visual effects for film and TV. Her personal work focuses on storytelling through portraiture, and the gaze and presence of Black bodies in science fiction. She has taken part in panels discussing diversity in the VFX and animation industry for Animated Women UK, Access:VFX and Manchester Animation Festival. Her published artworks include 'The Impossible' (book 1 and 2) by TV drama Writer Mark Illis. Bimpe has a BA History of Art from the University of Manchester and an MSc Animation & VFX from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design.
https://bimpealliu.com
Jenny Moore is a composer, singer, choir leader and performance artist. Her London-based six-piece choral-punk ensemble Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business is known for their tuned percussion, huge vocals and chanted soulful mantras, a mix of the 90's R&B and post-punk Jenny grew up listening to in the Canadian prairies. Their debut EP, "He Earns Enough," was released on Lost Map Records in 2021, with The Piano Tapes Vol. 1, recorded live in St Barnabas, Dalston following in 2022. Her new experimental choral punk musical, "Wild Mix," is currently in development.
Moore founded the 60-piece experimental F*Choir, composing and arranging for the diverse group of singers using non-gendered voice parts, graphic scores, no auditions to create highly energetic, rhythmic and political music. She's known for pioneering the DIY scene in bands like the dance-punk trio Charismatic Megafauna and Bas Jan, hosts a radio show on Soho Radio called 'Hitting Things,' and recently made her theatre debut as Composer for Robin Hood: The Legend Re-Written at Regents’ Park Open Air Theatre.
Moore was the first artist in residence at Borealis festival for experimental music in Bergen, Norway in 2019-20 and has been commissioned by the National Girls Youth Choir, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, Arnolfini Bristol, CCA Glasgow and various DIY artist led spaces in London and abroad. She has performed at The Future is Female, Chapter Arts, Cardiff, Park Nights at the Serpentine Gallery with BBC Late Junction, Supernormal festival, and various DIY artist led spaces in London and abroad.
https://jennymoore.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.instagram.com/jennymooresmysticbusiness/
https://sohoradiolondon.com/profile/hitting-things-with-jenny-moore/
www.fchoir.com
