2009



9 minutes 30 seconds

'In the video, Commonwealth, Davies shifts her focus between three distinct types of ceremonial activity taking place within Sheffield Town Hall: the citizenship ceremonies, the council meetings and a one-off brass- band performance, which was orchestrated at the artist’s request in one of the Council’s ceremonial chambers.

Davies’ editing blurs the edges between these different contexts; fragments of sound from one location bleed over into the frame of another, offering an aural sub-text in which unexpected parallels and analogies are made.  She draws attention to the points where the collective identity of a group becomes frayed at the edges, to those brief interludes within a ceremonial performance when the mask of duty or anonymity momentarily falls to reveal signs of the individual beneath.’ 
Emma Cocker, (2009)

Read Emma Cocker’s essay about Commonwealth on a-n's review unedited reviews section

Commonwealth was produced as part of Yorkshire Artspace Society Residency Program and was funded by the Arts Council and the Esmie Fairbrn Foundation.