W.A.M.A.: The Work as Movement Archive
Date uploaded: April 25, 2012
W.A.M.A.: The Work as Movement Archive
Artist Serena Korda's new public artwork, W.A.M.A.: The Work as Movement Archive, will be launching in Barton Hill, Bristol, on 12th May 2012.
This new folk dance artwork celebrates the industrial heritage of Bristol’s Barton Hill. A carnival procession, folk dance and choral performance will form part of a new artwork for Barton Hill in Bristol. W.A.M.A.: The Work as Movement Archive, a collection of everyday work-related movements initiated by artist Serena Korda, is the basis of a unique event on 12th May 2012, featuring a procession with costumes, puppet icons and music culminating in the performance of an invented folk dance and a choral performance from local children.
The artwork has been commissioned by Sovereign Housing Association to celebrate the end of ten years of regeneration in Barton Hill, an inner-city area in east Bristol known for its strong working class roots.
To create W.A.M.A., Serena has been working in collaboration with the residents of Barton Hill to create an artwork that documents the area through people’s everyday working movements.
Historically, Barton Hill was home to a variety of industries stemming from the 19th century Great Western Cotton Mill and Netham Chemical Works to the present day. W.A.M.A. was inspired by Serena’s discovery of ‘meemoing’, a sign language developed by cotton mill workers so they could communicate in the noisy mills, and which is only documented anecdotally.
W.A.M.A. seeks to capture Barton Hill’s rich industrial heritage and reflects how people’s lives, movements and actions were influenced by the rise of machinery during the industrial revolution, creating a picture of Barton Hill through an invented dance. To create W.A.M.A., local people have ‘donated’ physical movements of modern-day labour, which are being arranged into a one-off live dance performance. The Work as Movement Archive will go on to form part of a permanent video archive in Bristol’s MShed museum.
Serena commented: “Storytelling is at the heart of my work, developed out of encounters, conversations and forgotten histories. Participation in invented traditions and rituals is crucial to how these works unfold, often exposing process and making. W.A.M.A. celebrates the everyday movements of work and labour in Barton Hill, many of which have now disappeared, whilst exploring the profound effect machines have on our daily lives.”
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