Highland artist goes for blanket coverage with National Lottery support

AN Inver-based dance artist and choreographer is preparing to take an ambitious new Highland-based performance project to festival and museum audiences across Scotland.

It follows support from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals.

Julia McGhee has been invited to present work from her new choreographic research project, Goldy-looking blanket, at the Cymera sci-fi, horror, and fantasy writing festival held in Edinburgh this summer, before bringing the work to audiences closer to home through local events in Inver and Tain, at the St Duthac Book and Art Festival.

She will also be doing a pop-up performance at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery later this year and give a guest lecture at UHI in September.

Goldy-looking blanket combines movement, film and outdoor performance while exploring an evolving character known as “Goldy” — an abstract, shape-shifting form created using a gold space blanket. Through a series of residencies in Dundee, Edinburgh and the Highlands, the project investigates how movement, light and landscape interact — and how audiences respond to something open to interpretation.

Julia is collaborating with dance artist Niamh O’Loughlin and digital artist and filmmaker Lucas Chih-Peng Kao, bringing together expertise in live performance, movement, film and visual media to shape the work across studio and outdoor environments.

A key part of the project will take place locally in Inver, where the team will undertake a week-long outdoor residency in early July, working in familiar community spaces including the shore and local park. Residents and visitors will be able to watch the artists at work and take part in informal sharings and conversations as the work develops.

Julia said: “I’m delighted that National Lottery through Creative Scotland has chosen to support me to develop this work and I’m excited about sharing it with my local community and further afield.

“For me Goldy is about exploring a performance alter-ego — something instinctive and personal — but I’m just as interested in creating a space for audiences to make their own response. I’m really intrigued by what other people see and hear and what Goldy reflects back to them about their own thoughts and feelings.”

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.