Alluvial Matters is an artistic-research project and series of performance rituals which respond to histories of tin mining on Dartmoor. The installation in Gallery333 includes an assemblage of tin sculptures formed during our performance rituals and links to accompanying sound pieces. The sound pieces feature recordings from our research process and poetic responses to encounters with Dartmoor ecologies around former tin mines.

Our tin recasting rituals involve melting tin soldiers over an open flame and throwing the liquid metal into a bowl of water while reciting spoken word poetry. These rituals are based on a scrying practice and New Year’s Eve ritual in Germany and Austria called Bleigiessen. The work seeks to reimagine extractivist relationships to the land through different sources of alluvial matter that act as poetic and performative material. We invite you to look for shapes in the sculptures and to listen to the whispers in the hiss of molten metal meeting water.

Alluvial Matters is a collaborative project by Sarah Blissett and Kerry Priest.

Sarah Blissett (she/her) is an artist-researcher and lecturer in Drama at the University of Plymouth where her work explores how site-specific performance can remember and reimagine entangled human and nonhuman narratives.

Kerry Priest (she/her) is an award-winning poet specializing in polyphonic poetry and working at the interface of sound design and literature to create pieces which uncover hidden aspects within internal and external landscapes. Our shared practice considers how working with materials from the earth through sound-making, movement and text, can excavate the ancient and mythic layers in the landscape and within ourselves.

Sarah and Kerry are co-directors of SOAK Live Art CIC, a platform that celebrates new multidisciplinary performance work by South West artists.

@srblissett  | @kerrypriestess | @soakliveart

VENUE: GALLERY 333, EXETER PHOENIX

An intimate window gallery for micro-installations and sculptural interventions.