"... This Boat Must Hold Us All"
2016-17
“This Boat Must Hold Us All” was a socially engages project devised and delivered by Lady Kitt and composer Bridie Jackson. It is inspired by stories of displacement, immigration, migration and refuge, shared during workshops alongside community groups around the North East of England during 2016-17.
Outcomes included:
Songs
Paper sculptures
An interactive live event devised and performed by Kitt and Bridie
" 'We've got a lot on my mind', we say.
Displacement,. Compassion. Forgiveness Tipping points, tripping points, making points.
Making, breaking, mending.
Migrant, staygrant, vagrant. Foreign objects, familiar objects, familial objects, common objects, powerful objects. Paper. Powerful paper.
Money, betting slips, passports, deeds. The power of making. Making as an ice breaker, as a navigation tool, as a thing in common. Making on mass. Making and talking. Making and sharing. Making a nuisance of yourself, make yourself comfortable, make yourself at home. Home maker. Home made. Homely objects. Objects in common. A place to start, a space to share, a place to end. A common goal.
So, We're getting it off our mind and onto paper, into paper. Cutting and tearing it all out of paper.
Asking for help. Offering help. Offering an alternative.
Making something. Making sense? Making. "
"This Boat Must Hold Us All"
Durational, interactive performance
Performed by Bridie Jackson and Lady Kitt
As part of Freedom City 2017
At St Michael's Church, Byker
Oct Sunday 8th, 2017
2pm-3pm
“For the duration of the performance Lady Kitt and musician Bridie Jackson will sit in a giant origami boats. Bridie will sing traditional British folk songs and her own compositions.
Kitt will cut heart shapes from the paper of her boat, placing them is small glass vials and discarding them "overboard".
Viewers are invited to help themselves to a vile as a memento of the event.
The work is part of the ongoing project responding to recent national & global political changes. This performance asks viewers and performers to imagine the effect these changes could have on our own lives. It is inspired by stories of immigration, migration and refuge."
“I was mesmerised by a tide of empathy and compassion which flowed from the work”
International Peace Campaigner