Philip Lee and Cally Trench collaborate on performances.
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Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Tied Slip I
National Glass Centre, Sunderland
5th April 2011
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Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Tied Slip II
Firestation Centre for Arts & Culture
Windsor, 23rd April 2011
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In Tied Slip I, in the industrial environment of the Hot Glass Workshop at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, Philip Lee (naked) and Cally Trench (clothed) were tied together and struggled to cover each other in clay slip. Colluding in the discomfort and punishment, each played by particular rules unknown to the viewer. They were intimately connected during a struggle with each other and the clay. Neither performer spoke. During the performance the balance of power and initiative shifted between the performers. The slip transformed the performers, so that they became objects and monsters.
In Tied Slip II, with the audience seated in darkness above the performers, Philip Lee and Cally Trench enacted a power struggle between themselves and with the cold, heavy and uncomfortable clay slip. The black floorcloth recorded the movements and actions of the performers.
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Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Body Body Clay Pane
South Hill Park, Bracknell
13th October 2011
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Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Spode Slip
Spode factory, Stoke-on-Trent
(British Ceramics Biennial), 20th October 2011
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Body Body Clay Pane was devised in response to Adam Marsh’s installation, A throne is only a bench covered in velvet in the Wilde Theatre at South Hill Park; the event was curated by Outi Remes. Philip Lee and Cally Trench performed in the Ceramics Studio where Adam had worked during his two-year residency at the arts centre, and used a number of Adam's ceramic pots and bowls. Their performance has been described as 'mystical'.
Spode Slip was performed in the Spode factory, Stoke-on-Trent during the British Ceramics Biennial. The hanging canvas backdrop was left behind as both evidence and outcome of the performance.
Philip Lee and Cally Trench performed Body Body Chair Slip at the private view of The Re...Show, an exhibition curated by Rekha Sameer at Out of the Dark, High Wycombe on Saturday 12th November 2011. Out of the Dark is a project to train disaffected and discouraged young people in furniture restoration skills. The young people repair and repaint old furniture, creating interesting and attractive on-off pieces. See Out of the Dark.
Philip Lee and Cally Trench were among twelve artists with work in the exhibition, which took place from 11th November to 25th November 2011. The other artists were were Abi Spendlove, Ben Hodson, Gin Durham, Jamie Bradbury, Josephine Reichert, Katherine Melancon, Kirsten Linning, Pedro Pires, Rekha Sameer and Rory Clark. The exhibition received funding from Arts Council England. See The Re...Show. Click here to see a short film by Highway productions.
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Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Body Body Chair Slip
Out of the Dark, High Wycombe
12th November 2011
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Cally Trench and Philip Lee are co-curating an exhibition Do you remember it - or weren't you there?, which will show work by sixteen artists and writers made in response to seeing Philip and Cally perform. Documenting and describing live performance art is extraordinarily difficult. Photographs and videos can show you what happened, but rarely convey the feeling of being there, of experiencing the event at the time, in real time, live.
Could one way of creating that feeling, of conveying a memory of the experience, be through the making of another work of art?
Philip Lee has been performing with clay since 2003. Venues for his work have included The Courtauld Institute, Matts Gallery, The Nunnery Gallery in Bow, South Hill Park and the Design Museum. Philip Lee has a BA in Ceramics from the University of Westminster (2001) and an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins (2007). Philip Lee is a performance artist whose essential material is his own naked body. His work is the result of an obsessive investigation into the nature of bodies. Live performance is central to his work.
Click here for Philip Lee's website