https://hcmf.co.uk/programme/a-grammar-of-distance/
Rosie Middleton mezzo-soprano
Kari Watson electronics
Kari Watson (USA, 1998)
A Grammar of Distance (2025-2026) 38’ World Premiere
Created in close collaboration with Rosie Middleton
An exploration of relationality, A Grammar of Distance oscillates between fragments of interior and exterior worlds, asking how we come to understand and negotiate intimacy, vulnerability, and inter/personal distance. A mosaic of moments accumulate, converging towards a single vanishing point to articulate the complexity of the relational self.
A Grammar of Distance is driven by shared experiences related to identity, embodiment, and the politics of performance on marginalised bodies. It explores the potential for recontextualising the body via electronic intervention, questioning how this transforms power and agency within performance.
Kari Watson is a composer, performer and intermedia artist whose work explores the intersections of contemporary concert music, electroacoustic composition, live performance and interactive installation. Their composition practice is cross-disciplinary and deeply collaborative, often involving workshop-driven processes that prioritize collective exploration and exchange.
Winner of the 2020 Michiko Hirayama Prize for experimental vocal music and honourably mentioned in the 2023 Darmstadt Kranichstein Music Prize, mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton specialises in the performance and creation of experimental music, contemporary opera and performance art. As a collaborative artist, she creates work with composers and visual and movement artists, often using her body as a stimulus for artistic investigation.
Presented in the industrial surroundings of Bates Mill Blending Shed, this world premiere offers a compelling encounter with two artists creating a powerful new work at the intersection of voice, performance and electronic sound.
Produced by hcmf// supported by Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation and Vaughan Williams Foundation; also supported by University of Chicago Department of Music and Royal Northern College of Music
A Grammar of Distance is commissioned by hcmf// and was developed on residencies at Iklectik Art Lab and City University of London