F U T U R E R I T U A L

F U T U R E R I T U A L was established in 2017 by Joseph Morgan Schofield and Thomas Yeomans. The initial phase of the project took the form of six itinerant performance events, temporarily inhabiting and activating borrowed spaces, with five or six works taking place at each event. The events held space for artists and audiences interested in queerness, ritual, myth, magick, and mysticism to come together, to resist marginalization, to challenge decency, to protest, to process, to dream us forward.

In September 2019, F U T U R E R I T U A L presented a three day programme at Kunstraum and the Live Art Development Agency. The programme was entirely free to attend and included a screening and discussion event, followed by two performance events.

More about the project can be found: https://www.josephmorganschofield.com/fr-london-2019-kunstraum-26

https://performingborders.live/2019/11/14/joseph-morgan-schofield-november-2019/

In my work, I never know what is going to be the outcome of my actions. I entirely place myself in the moment of doing. My body becomes a vessel stretching and molding time or allowing time to clear and remold my own memory. Before the performance happened I wrote in my diary:

2019 September 26

My existence
Is it constrained by a system I live in?
Is it depending on it?
In which ways do I have or can live?

A small gallery space,
White walls,
Closed windows with
wooden white pallets 
It feels like our society   
We live in.

It all raises questions of my belonging 
Fitting in and molding time.
Molding or being mold by it 
Me and the rest of us.
I am afraid to fall and hurt myself 
I beg the moment be on my site.
I am going to get a lot of white flower,
Poor it in a ball until it's full 
Overfilled.
As in our current times
Overfilled with the white man’s power.
I want to burn the incense that we were once given 
During the Venice International Performance Art Week 
by Francesca Carol as a symbol of TRUST.

I want that smell come through my skin,
Reach the place where I was most naked
Take my fears away and let me lightly fall
Into our worlds, always out of reach
The Utopian Dream.

I'll wet the dress and wash it 
Put it back on and fall again.

I'll give myself to the moment 
Stand and look back at the dust
That is forever being shaped and again unshaped
Mold by our living bodies.

I'll take my black dress off 
And pin it with two shiny needles 
On my shoulders,
In the memory of those who 
fought and forever fights for
our inner freedom.

I'll place my body inside the man’s designed and built 
Architectural and social frame.

I'll let the water drip down and
I'll hold the weight of memory
That can’t ever none own. 

Photographs @Jemima Yong

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