Rachel Priest is a site specific performance artist and recent graduate of University of the Arts London. Rachel has a history of working on projects alongside artists and dancers. In Plymouth, she studied and worked with Attik Dance to produce Circadian Rhythm which was performed in the Plymouth Young Contemporary Open (2016). Her work is concerned with the boundaries of ownership in shared objects and spaces and how place-making is intertwined with identity. Her work has been exhibited in Germany, London and Plymouth and she has also performed in works such as Full Of Grace (2018) by Jessye Curtis and Acts / Re-Acts 4 (2017) by Lucy Algar & Kirill Burlov.
Q & A with Rachel
What do you love about showing and/or making work in Plymouth?
I love showing my work in Plymouth because it’s my hometown and I’m proud and privileged to live here. I love to make work about Plymouth because it has such a wealth of history; there’s a lot to unpack in this city.
What can you tell us about this project, and why is now a good time to share it?
This project is a version of the work I made for my degree show earlier on this year. The work explores the anxieties that come from the loss of cultural spaces, like the Reel Cinema, which closed this year. There are many buildings, in Plymouth, that where once social hubs but now sit empty and closed off from the public. At the same time, there are new buildings being built like the Drake Circus Leisure Development, which ironically, is a new cinema. This work encourages us to think about our relationship to architecture and space and how we use it.
What are you excited to see at this year’s PAW, and why?
There are so many works in the Plymouth Art Weekender that I’m looking forward to seeing! I’m hoping to catch MAKE IT UP by Tabatha Andrews and Tim Bolton which has unearthed this clothes making industry in Union Street that I never knew existed. I’m also volunteering over the weekend so I hope to see a lot more!
25, 26 & 27 Sept 2020 