Charting psycho-emotional landscapes and mapping them on to the physical, Phoebe Collings-James and Jamila Johnson-Small work with their multi-dimensional bodies as the primary technology and source material for a collaborative live performance Sound as Weapon, Sounds 4 Survival that is embodied through a symbiotic relationship between dance, music and sculpture.

The group forms a chorus centred around a conceptual deconstruction of ​‘percussion’ as it functions instrumentally and also as a radical proposition to the various ways you could think about the power of ​‘striking an object’ and the impact of the sonic as resonating frequencies and vibrations. Their bodies navigate the sensory labour of being ​‘played’.

For each performance of this work, Phoebe Collings-James and Jamila Johnson-Small a.k.a. Last Yearz Interesting Negro are joined by a different cast of three other artists. The performance takes place at Progress Bar. Progress Bar aims to represent radical equality, communality and hopefulness. It is a growing community of artists, academics and activists who occupy clubs for a better politics. When confronted with the world today – institutional inequality, neofascism, platform capitalism, austerity and a dying planet – being happy becomes a political act.

Commissioned by Bergen Kunsthall and Sonic Acts (2018) as part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Based on work developed in residency at Wysing Arts Centre.