Single-channel video projection with surround sound, & accompanying text Hoax, 2021.
From the series Lying on Behalf of All Women
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As part of her ongoing series Lying on Behalf of All Women, Davies present a Duet. For this moving image work, Davies turns the lens on herself, using her own body and voice to interrogate the perils of pregnancy, bodily trauma, lived experience and mythologies. The viewer is invited to spend time with an intimate performance-to-camera, as a heavily pregnant woman struggles to navigate herself into a bathtub, grappling physically and emotionally with her foreign body. Accompanying A Duet is the text work Hoax, part of an evolving collection of the artist’s writing and in this instance presented as a take-away print within the exhibition.
12 minutes loop, single channel HD video projection, 5.1 surround sound, scenography lighting & floor markings, AD & CC, with accompanying print series.
From the Bhebhe&Davies series Eloquent Rage.
Commissioned by Wellcome Collection
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Viscera explores how we conceal, harness and perform our emotions. In this film, Bhebhe&Davies use choreography, sound and text to interrogate the slippery nature of how we express our feelings, with a particular focus on rage and its limits.
This work is a development of Bhebhe&Davies’s residency at Wellcome Collection, where they worked alongside performers, dance artists and academics. Their research explored who is entitled to fully express their emotions in different social contexts and how our identities liberate or limit our behaviour. Viscera is shaped by activist, anti-racist and feminist writing, gestures drawn from competitive sports and visceral human experiences.
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Bhebhe&Davies is the collaborative practice of British-born Southern African performer and choreographer Nandi Bhebhe and Welsh artist Phoebe Davies. Their work spans live performance, sound and video, examining collaborative models of working across theatre and visual arts, and often working with intergenerational groups of performers and non-performers alike. As an intersectional female duo, at the core of their collaboration is an interrogation of race, gender and sexual identity, exploring the politics of power dynamics. They use the body and voice to investigate visceral human experiences, collective muscle memory and pack mentalities within social structures.
National and international highlights include working with Tate Modern (London), DKUK (London), Somerset House Studios (London), Marginalia Pictures (UK), Praksis (Norway) and Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (USA).
Viscera, an extract, Bhebhe&Davies, 2022
CIRCA x Dazed Class of 2022 screening at Piccadilly Lights (London), Kurfürstendamm (Berlin), K-POP Square (Seoul), and Federation Square (Melbourne).
Viscera explores how we conceal, harness and perform our emotions. In this film, Bhebhe&Davies use choreography, sound and text to interrogate the slippery nature of how we express our feelings, with a particular focus on rage and its limits.
This work is a development of Bhebhe&Davies’s residency at Wellcome Collection, where they worked alongside performers, dance artists and academics. Their research explored who is entitled to fully express their emotions in different social contexts and how our identities liberate or limit our behaviour. Viscera is shaped by activist, anti-racist and feminist writing, gestures drawn from competitive sports and visceral human experiences.
The CIRCA x Dazed Class of 2022 showcases 30 artists work from a global public call-out invited filmmakers + new media creators responding to the theme ‘A Future World’ inspired by the CIRCA 2022 manifesto "And Now We Build Worlds". Bhebhe&Davies were one of 30 finalists whose artworks were screened on London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights, Berlin, Limes, Kurfürstendamm, Seoul, COEX K-Pop Square and Melbourne, Fed Square. Viscera (an extract) screened internationally on Sunday 4th September at 20:22 local time.
Bhebhe&Davies is the collaborative practice of British-born Southern African performer and choreographer Nandi Bhebhe and Welsh artist Phoebe Davies. Their work spans live performance, sound and video, examining collaborative models of working across theatre and visual arts, and often working with intergenerational groups of performers and non-performers alike. As an intersectional female duo, at the core of their collaboration is an interrogation of race, gender and sexual identity, exploring the politics of power dynamics. They use the body and voice to investigate visceral human experiences, collective muscle memory and pack mentalities within social structures.
National and international highlights include working with Tate Modern (London), DKUK (London), Somerset House Studios (London), Marginalia Pictures (UK), Praksis (Norway) and Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (USA).
Multi-channel soundscape.
Points of Rupture, Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2020
This expansive sound work considers the limits of stamina, rest and physical and mental exhaustion. The soundscape samples field recordings collected over the last two years during Davies’ recovery from a knee ligament rupture she incurred whilst playing for a community basketball team. The soundscape automation references Davies’ personal struggles during her two-year rehabilitation, following her repetitive physiotherapy routine pre and post-surgery, re-learning to walk, sprint, pivot and block. It uses her personal data collected from mental health support staff as a score to map her internal journey through recovery. All samples were gathered from gyms, hospitals, domestic spaces, archives, and in the studio.
All field recordings, samples and spatial design developed through research and contributions from Nandi Bhebhe, Joseph Bond, Marie Swiecicka, SoundBytes Media and Somerset House Studios. Mastering and sound mix support from Tommie Introna, Black Shuck and Nick Ryan Studio.
Spiral Rides and Involuntary Peaks, is one-third of the work within the Points of Rupture installation, including The Sprawl (HD film, 31 minutes) and Defensive Drills #01 (installation and scenography).
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As part of the public programme Davies has invited the sound and DJ collective Synaptic Island to host a listening session in response to the theme Restoration.
A sample pack of sounds will be released with a collation of loops and one shots used to shape the soundscape in Points of Rupture. These will be accompanied by two new commissioned tracks made from the samples by DJs Joseph Bond and Marie Swiecicka.
Solo Exhibition, Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2020
Based on research with coaches, athletes and medics, this new body of work explores the physicality and personal narratives of occupying communal and competitive spaces.
The exhibition takes its points of departure from Davies’ ongoing recovery from a ligament rupture whilst playing basketball parallel to her work with a group of teenage female wrestlers, training in a local club on the outskirts of Oslo. A new moving image work “The Sprawl” documents day-to-day routines at the club, alongside combative and compassionate exchanges. Accompanying the film are a multichannel soundscape “ Spiral Rides and Involuntary Peaks” and installation “Defensive Drills #01” employing sports aesthetics, plays and structures. This expansive sound work considers the limits of stamina, rest and physical and mental exhaustion.
Phoebe Davies often finds herself referencing and exploring collaborative models of working across different social and cultural sectors, be that strategies from methods of organic farming, feminist organising or speculative fiction. For the last year, a key focus of her practice has been working within community sports settings, researching athletic methodologies, coaching and rehabilitation.
Points of Rupture, Site Gallery, Curated by Angelica Sule. Commissioned by Site Gallery.
This body of work began during an international residency programme at Praksis and has been supported by The Arts Council, Jerwood Arts, PRS Foundation, OCA Norway, Dana Høegh and Gerflor.
We Need to Talk
Presented at the final Syllabus III Retreat at Wysing Arts Centre, 2018
Resistance Training is a strand of research developed by Phoebe Davies and physiotherapist and international sports coach Alex Bowmer. This work was initially commissioned as part of Hyper Functional Ultra Healthy at Somerset House Studios, where Phoebe and Alex led a series of physical training sessions exploring resistance and competitiveness through collaborative movement, team/pack mentalities and collective strength. These sessions were active, working with athletes and non-athletes to explore exaggerated contact between participants drawing upon basketball, rugby and american football drills.
This is a work in progress, and has many iterations including a series of video sketches, fly posters, a zine and audio work.
This research builds upon Phoebe’s work with choreographer Nandi Bhebhe using live performance and performance to camera to negotiate multiple histories and intergenerational perspectives, disrupting power structures and exploring relationships of solidarity.
Floor installation & lighting scenography.
Points of Rupture, Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2020
Comprised of sports flooring and wrestling matting, Defensive Drills #01 draws from sports aesthetics, plays, drills and markings. Davies has developed flooring which references court structures, agility and plyometric drills, alongside return-to-play training, with the UK’s leading sports floor providers Gerflor and marking specialists Recreational Coatings. These markings were developed and mapped with the Physiotherapy Department at Lewisham University Hospital and sports medicine specialist Dr Alex Bowmer.
The flooring also draws upon research maps Davies creates, obsessively delineating personal and theoretical connections established during project research and collaborative processes.
Defensive Drills #01, is one-third of the work within the Points of Rupture installation, including The Sprawl (HD film, 31 minutes) and Spiral Rides and Involuntary Peaks (multi-channel soundscape, 17 minutes).
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In response to the installation design and scenography, the artist duo Bhebhe&Davies (Nandi Bhebhe and Phoebe Davies), will lead an intergenerational workshop exploring physicality and exhaustion through performance for camera within the installation. Further information can be found here Palm to Palm.
HD film, 31min 30sec
Points of Rupture, Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2020
The Sprawl follows a small wrestling club on the outskirts of Oslo, Norway, and their team of young female wrestlers. Filmed over the course of a year, it documents day-to-day routines at the club, team interactions, and their training, sparring and recovery from injury. Moving between moments of tenderness, strength and aggression, we are witness to the wrestlers being encouraged to struggle against each other, testing their mental and physical resilience. Engaging in combative and compassionate exchanges, the wrestlers recount personal narratives of care, recovery, ambition and drive. The film takes its title from a defensive wrestling move to prevent the body being taken down to the mat.
During the Points of Rupture, Davies will be working alongside international wrestling coach and two-time World Champion Ine Barlie and Norwegian Champions Sofia Aak and Hedda Ophaug, leading a weekend of events and introductory sessions to contact-based sports open to women and girls across ages for further information see here: Drilling Basics.
The Sprawl, is one-third of the work within the Points of Rupture installation, including Defensive Drills #01 (installation and scenography) and Spiral Rides and Involuntary Peaks (multi-channel soundscape, 17 minutes).
a portrait series,
Pete, lambing at Pitcot, 2018
Pete, sunrise shepherding, Dunraven Bay, 2020
Pete, 1am, bathing after the lambing shift, 2021
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Each 300mm x 400mm
Giclée Fine Art Print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Paper
Edition of 15 + 3 APs
Signed and numbered
Publication & print series
Wildcard A.B.C, Heart of Glass, St Helens, 2019.
During her artist residency at Wildcard Amateur Boxing Club in 2019, Phoebe worked alongside young boxers at the club, using visual imagery, DIY publishing and writing to explore physicality, competitiveness and mental health. This resulted in an artist limit edition publication, accompanied by an edition series of portraits of the club post bout.
Further project outcomes in sound and video will be shared nationally in 2020.
Wildcard A.B.C is situated in Parr Sports and Community Centre, St Helens. Established in 2009, they provide boxing and fitness classes for every level, from novice to champion.
Heart of Glass is a St Helens, Merseyside-based collaborative and social arts agency. Through arts projects, they create a space for dialogue, research and experimentation for artists and citizens in which the relationship between people and place can be explored.
A flyposter exhibition with Syllabus III
Recent Activity, Birmingham, 2018
A series of posters created by Syllabus III following provocations set by Recent Activity and Eastside Projects, as part of the fourth retreat within the Syllabus programme. Presented as part of Digbeth First Friday.
> moving > nudging > forward attack > forward thinking > tripping forward > a bit forward > pushing forward > falling forward > accidental > motion > bouncing > rolling > paying it forward
> and no bull shit
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Performance for camera, KHIO & Praksis, Oslo, 2018
Artist Phoebe Davies and choreographer Nandi Bhebhe led an intensive weekend workshop exploring the ways that human bodies interact and occupy space, in group situations where power dynamics and the ‘pack mentality’ are in play.
Active research, based in movement and reflection, will examine the borderline-perceptible physical cues, signals and prompts that influence group interactions. Drawing on dance, sports drills, the codes that order urban walking, and other systems of movement, the workshop will identify and magnify critical moments of physical contact, culminating in a series of filmed performances for camera.
For further information see here.
Supported by Dana Hoegh.
Artist in Residence
Wildcard A.B.C, St Helens, 2019
Phoebe Davies is artist in residence at Wildcard Amateur Boxing Club throughout 2019. Alongside Aimee Harrison (producer), Joseph Bond (artist and sound designer) and Rose Nordin (graphic designer), she is working with the young boxers to develop a series of new works across print, sound and video as part of a commission from Heart of Glass.
Outcomes from the project will be shared nationally in 2020.
Wildcard A.B.C is situated in Parr Sports and Community Centre, St Helens. Established in 2009, they provide boxing and fitness classes for every level, from novice to champion.
Heart of Glass is a St Helens, Merseyside-based collaborative and social arts agency. Through arts projects, they create a space for dialogue, research and experimentation for artists and citizens in which the relationship between people and place can be explored.
International artist residency.
Praksis, Oslo, 2018
Led by Phoebe Davies and events held in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus and supported by Dana Hoegh.
Praksis Residency 12, Taking Hold – The Double Bridge explored and questioned the ways that solidarity, competition and antagonism find physical expression in social relationships.
Developed and led by Phoebe Davies, the residency used performance for camera as a tool to test the spoken and unspoken rules of public bodily contact: for instance, in greetings, contact sports or on the dance floor. The process was underpinned by Davies’ personal research into power dynamics, plus her collaborative enquiry into the concept of ‘pack mentalities’ and intersectional perspectives with performer and choreographer Nandi Bhebhe, as Bhebhe&Davies.
Participating artists include: Emma Bäcklund (SE), Marte H S Dahl (NO), Phoebe Davies (UK), Bianca Hisse (BR), Ayesha Jordan (US), Shahrzad Malekian (IR), Jessica Williams (US), and Sam Williams (UK)
Further information about the full residency program can be seen here.
Performance, Tate Exchange, Switch House, Tate Modern, 2016.
20 October - 23 October, Tate Modern, London
Devised by Phoebe Davies and choreographer Nandi Bhebhe.
Performance documentation by Christa Holka.
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Working with an intergenerational cast Creases navigates personal journeys and perceptions of age, sexual identities, anxieties and desires.
This durational work encompassed movement, dance and live sound, spanning Tate Exchange and the public spaces on Level 3, 4 and stairwells of the Switch House building.
Building on this work, Nandi and Phoebe are developing a new commission A Navigation, which will premier at DKUK in Peckham in March 2017.
"Visionary fiction encompasses all of the fantastic, with the arc always bending towards justice. We believe this space is vital for any process of decolonization, because the decolonization of the imagination is the most dangerous and subversive for there is: for it is where all other forms of decolonization are born. Once the imagination is unshackled. liberation is limitless.” - Walidah Imarisha - Octavia's Brood
Group show, Praksis, Oslo, 2018
Ideas, research and new video sketches by: Emma Bäcklund (SE), Marte H S Dahl (NO), Phoebe Davies (UK), Bianca Hisse (BR), Ayesha Jordan (US), Shahrzad Malekian (IR), Jessica Williams (US), and Sam Williams (UK)
A forum for the sharing of ideas, research, and new video sketches, this free public event looks at some of the results from the first three intensive weeks of PRAKSIS’s twelfth residency, Taking Hold—The Double Bridge. The residency has brought together eight Oslo based and international artists with the intention of exploring ways that solidarity, competition and antagonism find physical expression in social relationships. The evening offers a moment for reflection, comment and questions, as well as a chance to consider where the works might go next.
Taking Hold—The Double Bridge has been developed with and is led by British artist Phoebe Davies. Events are held in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus.
Artist film screening and talk, Kunstnernes Hus & Praksis, Oslo, 2018
Contact, intimacy and empowerment.
Phoebe Davies’ films document and dramatise choreographic experiments involving human bodies in contact. Arresting and sensuous, they place subtle but significant acts of co-operation and control under the microscope of the camera lens. In this event, Davies will share and discuss a selection of her video works and interventions. She will also screen selected video footage and soundtracks, ranging from pop to the political, that form important points of reference in her work. In this informal presentation, the audience will have many opportunities to converse with Davies on her current thinking, research and working methodologies.
This event is part PRAKSIS’s twelfth residency, Talking Hold - The Double Bridge, led by Davies with events held in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus.
For further information see here.
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Image credits:
A Navigation, Bhebhe&Davies, 2017
Resistance Training, Phoebe Davies, 2018
Act 1: Astoria, Phoebe Davies, 2015
Creep, TLC, 1994
Hands of Bresson, selected extracts
Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989
Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky, 2001
I'm Not Dancing, Tirzah & Micachu, 2013
Shot Clock, Beth Kettel, Phoebe Davies, Olivia Norris, 2018
Performance and installation
Beth Kettel, Phoebe Davies, Olivia Norris
Cob Gallery, 2018
Artists Phoebe, Beth and Olivia met playing for the women's basketball team Hackney Gazelles. Curator and Coach Joseph Bond has invited them to work together to explore ideas of positive touch in sport, competitiveness and collaborative movement.
For Muscular Notions they present a performance which is the result of three afternoon rehearsals situated in a basketball key. The performance uses the 24 second shot clock in basketball which is designed to increase the game's pace and scoring. From struggle to tenderness three bodies share a conversation through touch. After the performance the shot clock and key will remain in the space.
Muscular Notions assembles eleven multidisciplinary artists probing intimate movement within public spheres as a means of communication, claiming space and reaffirming communities. Small-scale physical phrases and gestures of articulation, in both support and in excess of language, are highlighted for their ability to transform, translate and transfer energy and meaning.
Muscular Notions was curated by Joseph Bond.
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A Navigation, a new film work devised and directed by Phoebe Davies and Nandi Bhebhe.
A Navigation investigates personal journeys and perceptions of age, sexual identity, anxiety and desire, exploring the role and place of intimacy in all its manifestations; non physical, social, intellectual and emotional. The themes of the film are reflected in its presentation at DKUK.
Davies has worked collaboratively with groups of female performers to explore how women’s bodies can negotiate multiple histories, disrupt power structures and form relationships of solidarity. The film is shaped by its performers’ reflections on ageist assumptions; through movements that consider the evolution of how one occupies space in society, the power of the individual’s presence and how they can deconstruct or shift perceptions.
In collaboration with vocal artist Randolph Matthews, the soundtrack, co-designed by Joseph Bond, takes as its point of departure the belief that primal human sounds are synonymous with the emotional self.
A Navigation builds upon Davies’ collaborative practice with Nandi Bhebhe and their work with Bedfellows, a sex re-education research project with artists Jenny Moore and Chloe Cooper. The realisation of the work would not have been possible without the support of Artsadmin, Thrds Studio, Amy Gawtkin and Rachael Harlow.
A Navigation, a new film work devised and directed by Phoebe Davies and Nandi Bhebhe.
A Navigation investigates personal journeys and perceptions of age, sexual identity, anxiety and desire, exploring the role and place of intimacy in all its manifestations; non physical, social, intellectual and emotional. The themes of the film are reflected in its presentation at DKUK.
Davies has worked collaboratively with groups of female performers to explore how women’s bodies can negotiate multiple histories, disrupt power structures and form relationships of solidarity. The film is shaped by its performers’ reflections on ageist assumptions; through movements that consider the evolution of how one occupies space in society, the power of the individual’s presence and how they can deconstruct or shift perceptions.
In collaboration with vocal artist Randolph Matthews, the soundtrack, co-designed by Joseph Bond, takes as its point of departure the belief that primal human sounds are synonymous with the emotional self.
A Navigation builds upon Davies’ collaborative practice with Nandi Bhebhe and their work with Bedfellows, a sex re-education research project with artists Jenny Moore and Chloe Cooper. The realisation of the work would not have been possible without the support of Artsadmin, Thrds Studio, Amy Gawtkin and Rachael Harlow.
Artsadmin Summer Intensive.
Bhebhe&Davies worked with 10 emerging artists to develop, devise and direct a series of 4 short performances to camera, centered around the deconstructions and shifts of power.
The project brought together a group to explore plural voices and experiences, acknowledging difference and power dynamics, collectivity and solidarity.
Through a week-long Summer intensive, the group worked together with Bhebhe&Davies and Blackshuck (a moving image co-op) to explore movement, sound and camera direction to develop a series of short online videos.
Workshop and research commission.
Led with Alex Bowmer, a specialist in sports medicine.
Commissioned for Leisure Time, Construction House, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, 2019
Further information about Construction House can be seen here.
Elderly Day Care Residency,
A Clod Ensemble Commission 2014
Over a three month residency period Phoebe worked with the centre users, support staff and London based DJs, investigating and exchanging ideas of self representation and popular culture, remixing music and visual references of hyper stylised fashion imagery and house beats. Set design, choreography and tracks (prior to remixing) were designed in collaboration with the elderly care centre users.
Following a series of performances to camera, the project culminated in a video work, (Act 1: Astoria), poster series and a limited edition vinyl record.
This work was commissioned by Clod Ensemble in collaboration with Riverside Centre in Tower Hamlets, Millman Street Resource Centre in Camden.
Performance Commission, ICIA, Bath, 2015
For the launch of the Spring season at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Contemporary Art in Bath Phoebe Davies and Holly Blakey were commissioned to develop a new performance, Interlude. Phoebe and Holly worked with University of Bath students and local participants to produce a performance intervention which responded directly to the site, exploring how we perceive our social frameworks, investigating assumed or expected behaviour at public gatherings whilst questioning and resetting the dynamics of the space.
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Friday 6th February 2015
