Category: Formats + themes

The Lullaby Directory

An exploration of the history of lullabies, their beauty, and darkness: The Lullaby Directory explores the human need to be held, and how we use song to hold ourselves against the unpredictability of existence.

“Rhiannon Armstrong can sing […] the most luscious of anti-capitalist protest songs” Megan Vaughan

“mesmerisingly beautiful songs” Clare Qualmann, audience member

 

The project began with an invitation to make a performance that would take place in complete darkness. 

Rhiannon performs versions of lullabies from around the world, drawing on extensive research from publications and recording archives.

The Lullaby Directory explores in particular those lullabies that express a wish to harm the baby, touch as part of the listening experience, and uses bespoke amplification techniques that turn singing into highly responsive vibrations.

The Lullaby Directory has been shown as:

  • a multi-sensory performance taking place in total darkness at Battersea Arts Centre
  • a site-specific choral performance at Wellcome Collection Reading Room
  • a theatre performance incorporating science fiction writing at The Yard Theatre

 

related projects

Anchored

Actions from the Afterlife

The International Archive of Things Left Unsaid

Public Selfcare System

Public Selfcare System is a one-to-one performance, direct action, a tandem jump into the unknown, and a masterclass in the radical act of stopping.

“thank you for making such clear-sighted, gentle, insistent work” – audience member

Public Selfcare System is drawn from Rhiannon’s lived experience of chronic debilitating conditions:

“I am an expert at resting in public thanks to a condition that sometimes forces me to lie down wherever I happen to be, and stay there until I am well enough to get up again.  We may all one day have to learn to stop in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day, and rest. Get ahead of the curve, get your training in now.

Come with me to a place you may have seen, walked past, but never been to. We are going to lie down and have a rest: I am going to look out for you and look after you. You have a right to be here, you have a right to do this. We can do it together.”

article by Rhiannon for Exeunt Magazine 

 tour pack

Public Selfcare System was developed with financial support from Arts Council England, and has been shown at festivals including:

  • Dublin Live Art Festival
  • SPILL Festival in Ipswich
  • Compass Festival in Leeds
  • Buzzcut in Glasgow
  • Tempting Failure in Croydon
  • Greenwich Docklands International Festival Hub in London

The project has also been presented in wider participatory modes including:

  • as a professional development workshop for artists with long term disabling conditions ‘DIY Public Selfcare System’ with The Live Art Development Agency and DADAFest
  • as a textile work developed through drop-in craft and discussion sessions at Waltham Forest Migrant Action
  • as an interior design concept for a “Quiet Room” at Battersea Arts Centre (launching March 2019)