Exploring grief, memory, and ways of care through performance art
A new Practice as Research project invites audiences to rethink how we experience proximity, grief, and care within Black and diaspora communities.
The collaborative multidisciplinary piece, titled Echoes of Care , invites audiences to witness – rather than participate – in a deeply reflective performance exploring the boundaries between observation and involvement. The performance combines a sound piece by Dr L. Gre composed with plants; a performative eulogy and video backdrop by Dr Kwame Phillips; movement in the form of dance; and sonic-gestural call and response, reflecting on care and vulnerability in racialised temporalities and ecological relations.
The project examines carefulness and carelessness in Black and diaspora bloodlines, interworking themes of grief, memory, and environmental sustainability.
At the centre of the performance is a living altar, a space for care and remembrance, brought to life through an innovative use of plant biodata. Together, electromagnetic signals captured from plants and Gre’s vocal performance transform invisible life processes into tactile sonic experiences, creating a dialogue between ecology and ancestry.
The composition unfolds in three movements, typically lasting between 15 and 30 minutes, shaped by the location of the performance. Audiences will encounter a performative eulogy, a sonic intervention, and a dance-led exploration of time and cosmology: past and present intertwined. While not overtly religious, the work resonates with spiritual undertones, incorporating symbolic elements from Black diasporic sacred traditions, and ocean imagery to suggest connection and continuity. Natural materials – earth and water – contrast with spiritually significant human-made items such as a candle and calabash, connecting ecology and heritage.
Phillips’s performative eulogy anchors the piece, alongside audiovisual elements and a theology of sound that interrogates how care is transmitted through bloodlines and environments. The work isn’t meant to just be watched and forgotten, but an invitation to witness, and the installation is designed to echo beyond the moment, leaving reverberations that linger in the days following the live event.
Successful performances have already been presented in London, Berlin, and Bahia, Brazil, where Black and diaspora communities form a significant cultural backdrop. Now supported by PerU funding , the project will scale up for a major performance at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton.
Reflecting on the project, Gre said: “Echoes of Care is a shapeshifting performance where witnessing becomes responsibility. We hold multiple timelines at once. Plant signals, voice, and gesture speak across ancestry and ecology to show how loss and care pass through living systems, not only people. Sound becomes care work: voice, noise, and silence mark where harm lives and where repair begins. We engage sonic, ancestral, and ghostly materials as data, working with plants to refuse isolated bodies. When the last sound fades, we shift from participant to researcher, carrying traces that shape how we meet others and tend to space.”
Kwame said: “We see this project as an opportunity to not only demonstrate our commitment to practice and culture-led research, but also as part of a continuum of diasporic dialogue that extends to the communities that this work engages with. Every performance is a new conversation with the lived experiences, embodied geographies and historical memories of the space and time it is inhabiting.”
