creatures of the dome

A residency and exhibition exploring the science and craft of domestic activities and their relationship to the natural environment through sculpture, performance and playful socially engaging activities.

Allowing the limitations of social distancing to inform their practice, they explored collective living, sharing, ceremonies, performance and play related to food, plants, myths, magic and stories. They seek to connect ideas, activate happenings and create intrigue for themselves and for audiences who were invited to take part, from a safe distance. In a well-considered manner, they invite you to creatively journey with them as they explore ‘community’ in a unique era, dense with guidelines and limitations, calling for a rethink in the ways we connect to each other and the environment we inhabit.

For the month of July, Ronchetti and Brelsford-Massey took over the gallery at Grays Wharf, spending the first two weeks researching, experimenting, developing and making before opening up to engage visitors with the resulting work;

An activation ceremony - where through interacting with and thereby activating the objects in the space they had been creating, the space became enlivened with the magic fuzzy potential of movement, belief and their specific functions - possibly putting the typical functions of certain objects into question and allowing our minds to wander with them into possibilities.

For Maya and Olivia, questions about gender arose through the ceremony, where soft materials like wool and fabric, culinary tools and foods and actions like chopping, simmering and dipping with spoons, magical and healing objects and tools and actions for cleaning and washing were woven into the performance in order to bring attention and appreciation for these things.

They held a screening where Olivia showed two recently made films - 'growth spurt' which was made over lockdown and 'dust times' made leading up to and during the time at Grays wharf.

During the last week of their time at Grays wharf they held spice workshop number 2 - a sequel to the first one which was held at Falmouth university, where they encouraged people who attended the workshop to engage with different spices, food, tools and fabrics in an intuitive and sensorially stimulating way. In the second spice workshop there was more emphasis on learning about the origins of spices and the plants they come from, how they are used traditionally, medicinally and what the plants they come from look like. This is a workshop they are still developing and hope to be able to bring to different places that could benefit from it as a mindful and educational tool.