Work | Sam Metz

From January 2020 to May 2020, Sam will be spending some time undertaking action research at the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. The collection houses work by artists that were self-taught and ‘outside’ the art world, many of whom were institutionalised and had learning difficulties or were autistic. They will be looking specifically at works that evidence repetitive mark-making. They aim to gather evidence relating to movement, gesture and mark-making that tells a story of embodied communication. Sam is interested, particularly in alternative communication that is non-verbal and body-based.

As an outcome of the research, Sam wants to create a catalogue of alternative notation to describe the phenomena.

Supported by a Jerwood Bursary

These small sulptures consider time and movement, utilising layers (stratification) to help design sequences of movement to inform choreography. Each layer now creates a mode of notation, and unlike previous objects which required a performer to respond to the totality of the object and an object in response to another object; enable a performer to consider moving through a sequence. They can be used as sequences of time signatures in a cyclical way. A dancer will create a movement in response to each layer and the dynamism will come from the travelling and interplay between the layers. They are made with Fusion 360 Slicer and developed through collaboration with the Makerspace in Hull.

July 2019: Summer Lodge NTU residency.
Experimentation with expanded forms of drawing informed by movement.
Creating a body of mark making - small drawings to consider space, tempo and dynamism

June 2019: Collaboration with artist Danni Spooner.

To develop a movement sequence inspired by handling the 3D printed forms (haptic). In working with research and development of choreographic objects Danni looked to enact the methodology of choreographer Deborah Hay’s provocation ‘Let my Body be my Leader’, developing a 4 minute movement sequence that included transitions from one of the objects to the other.

Danni was asked to be inspired by touch and consider the shape and dynamism of the objects, the objects were the only score that inspired movement. This research and development was supported by Yorkshire Visual Arts Network

NTU Enabling Innovation ERDF (March 2019) The choreographic objects created are from Sams own movements, translated through drawing, film and CAD modelling. The objects, as notation and score, will then be used by a performer to choreograph movements and to direct actions. The ‘choreographic object’, like more traditional notation, will comment on the speed, texture and form of the movement in a piece.

A residency at Derby Museums (August 2018) within their World Cultures Gallery, platformed by Divine Locale a curatorial group supporting emerging artists and graduates. Working with the collection as 'choreograhic objects', the artefacts informed my movements,. This work was inspired by ideas around body as archive, questioning what it means to perform in the museum context.

Attenborough Arts Centre Takeover, performing as part of GAL (Guerrilla Art Lab Collective), May 2017

Live Art explorations using paper, analogue film, drawing and sound to generate choreographic objects

Residency as individual artist showcase from part of GAL gallery takeover and live art performance, Lace Market Gallery (2017). Working with drawing as performance, mark-making, projections, animation, coded sound to generate new scores for movement

June 2017: Residency with Tetrad Collective. Considering conductive digital interfaces for triggering sound to choreograph movement. Experimenting with dancers to consider expanded forms of choreography

SAM METZ

ARTIST | EDUCATOR | RESEARCHER