@Disturbance

22 and 23 June 2024 - 5pm - 9.30pm

49 Tanner Street, SE1 3PL and streamed live online

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About @Disturbance

Ugly Duck Bermondsey is excited to announce the first ever summer edition of @Disturbance. Shape is pleased to be supporting Ugly Duck on their journey to evolve their creative programme with accessibility at its core, for artists and audiences.

Following the success of previous programmes championing LGBTQIA+ performance, video and digital artists, @Disturbance makes maximum use of Ugly Duck’s Tanner Street location, a former Victorian factory with multiple spaces.

A surreal outdoor party will lead to an interactive indoor set, full of wonder and the unexpected. June’s live performances will be accompanied by a simultaneous online stream, enabling audiences unable to travel to experience @Disturbance in full effect. @Disturbance remains committed to promoting accessibility and fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for radical, diverse and queer artists.

 This year, @Disturbance features five artists: Alex Billingham, Samiir Saunders, Ace Rhaman, Kobi Essah Ayensuo and Ella Frost, performing live and on giant video screens. @Distrubance is entirely artist-led, curated by Deen Atger. Other contributions come courtesy of Lucy Nurnberg who will design the exterior installation, Mahalia Henry-Richard taking care of graphic design, set designer Knives, who has a film background and poet Oduenyi Nwike lending multifaceted skills to @Disturbance as a key part of the team.

Ugly Duck Creative Director and founder of @Disturbance Deen Atger says: “This year we look forward to seeing our regular, fabulous @Disturbance crowd as well as new audiences discovering our work. We’re partnering with disabled-led organisations Care-fuffle and Shape Arts to embark on a journey around accessibility. All artists will create new work where captioning, audio description and BSL translation will not only be embedded but considered as the work is being created. By employing livestream, projections and other technologies, we aim to explore and learn what accessibility can mean and look like for artists and audiences. Through this edition of @Disturbance we question how to make this an integral part of the show, rather than approaching it as an afterthought, so that we can not only come together but show up for each other as a larger community.”

Accessibility

The in-person events will take place at Ugly Duck, 49 Tanner Street, London. The space is step-free. The nearest station is London Bridge, which is serviced by both the London Underground and many National Rail routes. 

The closest Changing Places toilet is in City Hall (0.52 miles). There is also one in London Bridge Station (0.64 miles). There are accessible facilities in the venue on Tanner Street.

Performances will be accompanied by BSL interpretation, audio description and open captions.

The online live stream of performances will provide BSL interpretation, audio description, open captions, and closed captions where appropriate.

There will be a rest space available at the venue.

About the artists

Samiir Saunders is an artist from Birmingham who brings their dynamic fusion of spoken word, alternative hip hop and performance art to @Disturbance. Saunders's multimedia poetry embodies a powerful narrative and aims to arm individuals and communities with the tools to be curious, compassionate, and vulnerable in their everyday lives, often exploring themes such as grind culture, isolation, shame, miscommunication, intimacy, and the internet. Samiir’s work has travelled both nationally and internationally and has featured at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, London’s Jerwood Space and Coventry’s New Art Exchange amongst other arts spaces plus Channel 4 Random Acts, BBC Words First, Wales International Film Festival and more.

Kobi Ayensuo is a London-based musician, poet, and creative polymath. Their output is imbued with themes of queer and trans Black identity, coming of age, Ghanaian heritage, navigating relationships and reimagining and decolonising the lens with which Black history is told. Their soulful work often blends vocals, harmonic soundscapes, music and poetry. Kobi has been published by Ink Sweat and Tears, South London Gallery, Flipped Eye and Marques Almeida (for London Fashion Week 2020). They’ve performed at key venues and festivals such as Wilderness Festival, Mighty Hoopla, Tate Britain, Roundhouse, Barbican and Southbank Centre. They’re also a BBC Words First finalist, a member of Soho Writers Lab and an alumnus of the Obsidian Foundation, Barbican Young Poets and the Roundhouse Resident Artist programme.

Alex Billingham’s practice is rooted in her personal journey as a disabled, trans, neurodiverse, and queer individual. Alex's work serves as a poignant reflection of how these identities intersect and intertwine with the broader societal landscape. Alex’s live performance will take place within an immersive environment using film, installation and 3D. Alex has shown work at Baltic Gateshead, New Art Gallery Walsall, Manchester’s Contact Theatre and extensively across the UK and internationally.

Ella Frost is a visual artist working with video as part of their practice. Ella uses analogue technologies, queer narratives, and Black feminism as key elements. For @Distrubance, Ella’s work will be shown via giant video screens. They have previously collaborated with prestigious London nightlife organisations and shown their film ‘We Can’t Do This Alone’ at the Serpentine Gallery in 2022. Recently they were part of group show ‘membranes’ with Hypha Studio and directed the trailer for Out, a highly regarded performance piece by artist Ray Young. 

Ace Rhaman is a British-Bangladeshi multidisciplinary artist and creator, their ideas are expressed through a variety of mediums both digital and traditional and for @Disturbance Ace will build an immersive installation fusing organic materials, mask-making, fruit and sound. Their performance at @Disturbance will take place in this alternate universe of their own. They’ve studied Graphic Communication Design, augmented by a recent exploration into computing at the Creative Computing Institute. Rhaman's diverse skill set is reflected in their innovative approach to mediums ranging from traditional graphic arts to interactive digital installations.