LoveEast.46

It's Art, baby, Art!
Meet the artists
Claire Gaydon is a theatre-maker and performer
blending live art, storytelling and multimedia. Recurring
themes are social media, sex, nostalgia and vulnerability.
Her part documentary, part live performance See-
Through, examines identity, validation and narcissism
through the journey of a wannabe YouTuber and was
performed in July at The Old Church before heading to
the /Edinburgh Fringe.
OperaUpClose is a touring opera company that
produces innovative, unintimidating and affordable
English chamber re-imaginings of well-known works as
well as new operas. Their mission is to show opera as
a vibrant, living art-form for everyone to enjoy and be
inspired by. They will premiere a new English version
of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in 2019 at The Old Church
before taking it on tour throughout the UK.
Esmerealda Conde Ruiz is a choral conductor and
composer with an array of film, theatre, art and
architecture experience. She has collaborated with Yoko
Ono, Nils Frahm and CocoRosie to name but a few, and
her specialty is voice ensembles. She will be producing
a massed performance of over 100 female singers in
The Old Church cemetery in May 2019 and women are
welcome join the project by emailing 00femalevoices@
gmail.com
Gobbledegook creates interactive experiences for
family audiences and are interested in creating spaces
for individual discovery. Their strategy is to enquire,
give freedom to express and empower the participants
to make up their own stories, adventures and journeys.
Gobbledegook will be creating an interactive installation
exploring the world of Victorian travelling menageries
through the eyes of menagerie owner Frank C. Bostock.
24 LOVEEAST
The Associate Artist Residency
Programme at The Old Church
Regular readers will know that as well as being the only surviving
Elizabethan church in London, The Old Church in Stoke Newington is also
a vibrant arts and performance venue, hosting a variety of music, art, dance,
and performance events. Kaz recently had the pleasure of meeting artistic
director Deborah Coughlin, who talked with her about their new Associate
Artist Residency Programme and how it came about.
When Deborah took on the role of artistic director, one of the first things
she did was to conduct an audit of the organisation in order to solidify
its vision and purpose going forward. In looking at The Old Church’s
long history of community engagement, as well as its engagement with
the arts, it was clear that those two features were its heartbeat, and this
sparked an idea. Why not create an artist residency programme that would
support artists as well as enrich the community? And thus, the Associate
Artist Residency Programme was brought into existence and will host and
support six resident artists over the coming year.
As part of the band, Lone Taxidermist, Natalie
Sharpe’s malicious metier lurks somewhere between
the eldritch diva manifestations of Diamanda Galas and
the wry reflections of Victoria Wood, yet equally driven
by a magpie spirit and conceptual chutzpah. Lone
Taxidermist will debut BodyVice at The Old Church, a
multi-sensory, ever expanding live performance art &
audio visual project, based around the body as a device.
Tej Adeleye is a writer, researcher, facilitator and
programmer and is currently doing research with the
Stuart Hall Foundation and working at the George
Padmore Institute, exploring 50 years of Black and
Asian British cultural activism. She also hosts the radio
show, Floating Roofs, every Sunday morning at 10 on
NTS Radio. Tej will be using The Old Church space to
devise a sound installation showing in Summer 2019.
The installation will use music and storytelling to build
on some of the research she currently working on.
TO FIND OUT MORE
theoldchurch.org.uk
info@theoldchurch.org.uk
@theoldchurchN16
@theoldchurchn16
@theoldchurchn16
The Old Church
Stoke Newington Church Street
Hackney, N16 9ES