Davinia-Ann Robinson

Tactile Knowledges - A series of research and artworks 2021 - 2022

distinction between felt flesh, (site-specific installation, performance & soundscape)- June 2022

‘distinction between felt flesh’ is a durational performance, exhibition and site of research concentrating on the engagement between my body and clay, which took place at San Mei gallery. The work examined the processes of extraction that bodies of colour and natural resources both experience in ‘colonial nature environments’. Over the course of the six-week exhibition, I processed, cleaned and filtered raw clay making site-specific sculptures.

I placed raw clay into buckets of water and using my hands mixed these two materials to create clay slip which I then poured into pillowcases which hung from the ceiling, slowly expelling excess water back into the buckets. Once the clay became a malleable consistency, I then created sculptures, outlining impressions of my body formed by pressing myself onto beds of clay, which left indentations and momentary residues of these interactions. As the exhibition evolved, sculptures were added to and removed from the space, the removed sculptures left outlined residues of their once presence, whilst the sculptures which remained weathered, dried, cracked, expanded and contracted, requiring ongoing gestures of care and repair.

whose flesh you are (site-specific installation, soundscapes) - July 2021

Through impressions and manipulations of my body onto beds of gathered clay ‘whose flesh you are’ is an evolving site specific work that examines the process of extraction that my body of colour and natural resource experience in colonial nature environments. Tactile engagements between my body and the clay evoke moments of restoration and repair from colonial trauma, with soundscapes that examine intimate moments of corporeal connections to land and moments of disabled presence experienced through colonial violence.

whose flesh you are , extract of transcribe soundscape - November 2021

flesh to flesh, (site-specific sculptures) - April 2021