Dirt Above, Dirt Below
A guided meditation by Clay AD and Romily Alice Walden
Thursday, June 18, 8pm (Eastern Time)
Dirt Above, Dirt Below is a guided meditation through the Underlands, a sick and disabled utopia imagined in Romily Alice Walden’s 2019 work Notes from the Underlands. Using Clay AD’s experience as a somatic bodyworker, the artists take us on a journey through our bodies, plants, rocks, and bugs, into a shared space dedicated to taking care of our communities, imagining better futures, and scheming those into being.
The running time is 27 minutes but participants should feel free to stay for as long as they like and follow their own intuition about how to engage with this work. Please come prepared with the following objects: five matches, a cup of water, and a pen and paper (or equivalent). The video is open captioned and a transcript will be available. If you have specific access questions or needs, please contact info@cueartfoundation.org and we will do our best to accommodate you.
This event is free with a suggested donation to one of the following funds designated by the artists: G.L.I.T.S., Inc., an organization which rehouses and supports Black trans people after incarceration, and the Disability Justice Mutual Aid Fund, a short-term mutual aid fund for disabled organizers involved with the protests for Black liberation.
Clay AD was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and now lives in Berlin where they are a somatic bodyworker, tarot reader, writer and artist. In their interdisciplinary practice they honour and explore illness, ecology, science fiction, transformation and the politics of care under capitalism — by themselves, collectively and with their clients. Their first novel, "Metabolize, If Able" is available through Arcadia Missa Press UK and was named a finalist in the 31st Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Their writing has been published by Pilot Press, Futures Journal, Hematopoiesis Press, and Monster House Press. They have led somatic and writing workshops at NGBK Berlin, Gemeinde Köln and Shedhalle Zurich, and read internationally including at the Institute for Contemporary Arts London. They received their BFA from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Romily Alice Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centres a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video, curation and printed matter, all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led working methodology. Recent work has shown at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art: Newcastle, Hebel Am Uffer: Berlin, SOHO20: New York and Tate Exchange: Tate Modern: London. In 2019 Walden was a Shandaken Storm King resident, and will be resident at Wysing Arts Centre in 2020. They work both individually and collectively as a member of Sickness Affinity Group; a group of art workers and activists who work on the topic of sickness/disability and/or are affected by sickness/disability.
Lull, lulla, lullen is a weekly installment of collaborative performances that draw upon the lullaby—songs that have served to soothe and express worry, while also passing down cultural knowledge. In response to insomnia, vivid dreams, nightmares, and restless sleep, the lullaby acts as a prompt for caring for one another while sharing narratives of resistance, resilience, loss, and hope.
Taking place online on Thursdays at 8pm ET, this series of evening performances invites artists to address states of unrest, mourning, isolation, and uncertainty. Each week we have invited one artist to participate and, in turn, asked them to invite a second artist to collaborate with them. The resulting works take the form of bedtime rituals and dreams for the future, explorations of traditional Lakota lullabies, guided meditations, telenovelas, and sing-alongs.
All events are free with a suggested donation to one of the following funds designated by the artists: G.L.I.T.S., Inc., an organization which rehouses and supports Black trans people after incarceration; the Disability Justice Mutual Aid Fund, a short-term mutual aid fund for disabled organizers involved with the protests for Black liberation; and the Oglala Sioux Tribe COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund.
Recordings of these events will be available on CUE’s website for a minimum of one week following each performance.