Performances
Although much of my work is participatory, sometimes I make performances or performative films that people watch (rather than participate in). Even then, they have increasingly disobeyed conventions of how the audience should pay attention (“Go to sleep”) or how much of the whole they can experience (“You have to leave now”).
Meeting Place (2012) by Hamish MacPherson & Martine Painter. Plays with visually unfolding an algorithmic formula. As the algorithm evolves, a curiously intimate and sometimes comic relationship between two human beings emerges.
Performed at Resolution! (Robin Howard Dance Theatre), The Industry Presents (Hotel Elephant Gallery), Science Museum's Dana Centre and Agony Art (Chisenhale Dance Space). Supported by: Birkbeck College, Dana Centre/ Science Museum, Eva Recacha, Hotel Elephant, Independent Dance, The Industry, Jerwood Space, Marco Benozzi, Marica Melotti, Newington Dance Space, Patrick Miller, The Place
"...delightfully unpredictable...."
Germaine Cheng, Resolution! Review
“A pleasing mathematical duet”
Time Out
"...genuine laughs out loud and a nice visible logic at play."
Lyndsey Winship, Time Out dance editor
“…the audience was left with a sense that, no matter how automated, dance is still a human endeavour.”
Lisa Grossman, New Scientist
Up On Two Legs (2013) A dance made from the sounds, structures and movement of political speeches. By adopting the archetypal political performance we ask, who speaks for us and to us. Photo by Gosia Wilder.
Performed at Westminster Kingsway College. Choreography: Hamish MacPherson with Vicky Frayard, Colm Gallagher, Sarah Gero, Steph Horak, Matthew Percy, Eva Percy, Amaara Raheem and Martin Shead. Performance: Vicky Frayard, Colm Gallagher, Sarah Gero, Eva Percy and Martin Shead. Thanks to: Alexandrina Hemsley, Gillie Kleiman, Lalitiraja, James Martin, Danai Pappa, Vasiliki Stasinaki, Reynaldo Young, Paradise Lost’s Retreat 2013 and Roehampton Dance.
The corrosive effects of time redefine everything against our will (2013) is a backwards choreography of people, spaces, ideas and things. It starts at the end, it unhappens by way of John Rawls, Radio 6 and Morris dancing, and then it begins. Sculptures are dismantled, words are unwritten and dances are undone.
Performed at Michaelis Theatre, University of Roehampton. Choreography and Performance by Hamish MacPherson Supported by Simon Ellis, Alexandrina Hemsley and Mike Toon.
dialogue 1 part 5: How to live in a dead machine (2014) by Hamish MacPherson & Maria Sideri. An encounter and an exploration of the possibilities and the impossibilities of a dialogue between two people in a big dead machine.
Presented at Chisenhale Dance Space a part of Agony Art 28 November 2014.
There She Lies Motionless (2016) by Francesca Cavello & Hamish MacPherson is an exercise in compassion, vulnerability and power, sitting somewhere between, workshop, performance and the every day practice of giving and receiving care. Loosely based on the work and life of Caroline Thomas, a woman who has simulated illnesses for over 30 years as a part of her volunteering commitment to the Casualties Union. There she Lies, Motionless is a setting for mutual, physical interaction where the action of caring for, with and about someone becomes choreography and the grammar for the imagination of unforeseen solutions.
Shown at Manifesta 11, Zurich (2016).
Doomsday is Just Not Coming (2017) by Hamish MacPherson. A guided meditation on bitterness, mediocrity and inertness. A chance to journey through past aggravation you can’t forget, and future revenge that never seems to arrive.
Written and performed by Hamish MacPherson. Produced by Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau. Commissioned byThe Bad Vibes Club and supported by Arts Council England. Presented at Open School East, Margate; ICA, London; and CCA, Derry~Londonderry. Image: Mark Blower.
NO CLIMAX YET (2018) by Hamish MacPherson with Antonio De La Fe, Kimberley Harvey and Paul Hughes. A series of overlapping, one-hour performances of passivity and activity, movement and stillness. These vary from wrapping a limp body to giving an anatomy lecture; from exhausted, wild dancing to asking the audience ‘What shall I do next?”. Over six hours, four performers assemble themselves in ever-shifting configurations of ones, twos, threes and fours. The 14 one-hour performances overlap so at any one time there are two performances taking place - merging, contrasting and cohabiting the space. Changing their costume, lighting and scenography, they draw the audience in to different worlds of care and intimacy - from sex club to salon to mortuary, and things in between.
“A deeply satisfying, and highly contradictory experience – to spend an hour with it is to be both gently cocooned and totally undone all at the same time. It can sometimes look casual, but you better believe it’s serious.”
Lauren Wright, Siobhan Davies Dance London, UK
“I loved NO CLIMAX YET. I loved the shifting, slippery nature of it. It felt like a collage of bodies, textures, sounds and moments, intersecting, rubbing up against and contrasting with each other.”
Lara Tysseling, The Yard London, UK
“NO CLIMAX YET brings an exquisite group of artists together in an unexpected collection of performative and choreographic actions.”
Paul Russ, Dance4 Nottingham, UK
It is urgent that we take our time (2019) was selected by the Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry~Londonderry to be part of URGENCIES a group exhibition that “engaged with the present moment of rapid change and uncertainty”. The looped 1hr 20 minute film shows a split screen with two scenes of wrapping or unwrapping different people in fabric. A series of overlapping performances of passivity and activity, movement and stillness. See how different bodies are negotiated, roles switch and the cycle of dependancy and attention goes on and on, before the viewer arrives and long after they leave.
Image: CCA Derry~Londonderry & Simon Mills
FLOATING (MOVEMENT 12) (2019) by Hamish MacPherson. A three hour bedtime performance. Performed at Making an Exit, Chisenhale Dance Festival, the audience drifted off to sleep to sounds and voices bobbing around the concept of floating. As their eyes dropped, I danced in the dim light wearing a Ghillie suit. A dance of drifting algae and swirling thoughts.
Featuring Peter Adamson, Sarah Blissett, Noemi Lakmaier, Derek McCormack, Ilana Mitchell, Charlie Morrissey, Osho, Ben Page, Cait Read, Susan Sentler and students at LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, Nigel Warburton, Rachael Wiseman. With thanks to Philosophy Bites, Independent Dance and Ali Baybutt. Part of THIS MOVEMENT, a project exploring how politics is made through the movements of bodies. Supported by Dance on the Radio.
“A yeti-haunted dreamscape... a beautiful and delicately realised durational experience in the wee hours”
“One of the most interesting things I’ve ever experienced”
Breathe: Imperative (2018) by Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau & Hamish MacPherson. Seething resentment; imposter syndrome; work-life balance; discrimination; office politics; WhatsApp bitching; rotten food in the fridge; coffee grounds in the staff room sink; micro-management; glass ceilings; cubicle farms; open plans and hot desks.
Using breathing and visualisation techniques, artists Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau and Hamish MacPherson present a guided meditation for the contemporary work place, taking you from exhaustion to exuberance and beyond.
Narrator Tessa Gallagher Performers Thaïs Mayne Hanvey, Jennifer Milarski, Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau, Hamish MacPherson, Graham Reid & Margot Cameraman Luke W. Moody Commissioned by Somerset House in 2018. This film was made for a guided meditation event where the audience was laying down in front of a large projection
