A new touring performance written and directed by visual artist Naomi Sex featuring Damien Devaney and Darina Gallagher • Duration: 20 minutes

Tours to:

Crawford Art Gallery (CAG)  16 September 2016, 6pm, 7pm, and 8pm.

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art)  5 November 2016, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm and 5pm.

Booking and further information on Cheek By Jowl is available on www.naomi-sex.com and cheek-by-jowl.eventbrite.ie

This new performance by Naomi Sex presents a series of layered, highly descriptive vignettes. Its title Cheek By Jowl sets a claustrophobic scene for a single ubiquitous character You/One to navigate an abstract, non-place.

You/One is middle-class, coming to terms with being middle-aged and is operating amidst a culture of distraction. The psychology and mechanics underlying the canonical practices of portraiture informed a starting point and became a way to imagine a performative rendering for a fictional portrait. In that regard, the surface of the body i.e. the skin is referred to throughout the scripted piece denoting aspects of a societal complexion.

Two actors channel this character with momentum, manoeuvring from side to side profile. The work is punctuated by carefully held, poised poses, choreographed to resonate with the notion of the portraitists’ “sitter”; as the actors move, they are physically connected to one another and are supported by chairs on wheels which remain fixed to their bodies for the duration of the piece.

This performance was awarded “The Touring Visual Arts Award, 2016” by The Arts Council of Ireland and The Fingal Artists’ Work Scheme.

Naomi Sex is a Dublin-based visual artist. She has lectured for many years in the Fine Art Department at The Dublin School of Creative Arts (DIT) and is a member of the Board of Directors of Visual Artist’s Ireland (VAI).

In 2012, Naomi Sex completed a practice-based PhD. Based on that extensive period of research she developed a new strand of practice and now uses performance to produce understated theatrical gallery-based situations to articulate her ideas. In 2013 she was awarded The Arts Council of Ireland’s “Visual Art Project Award, 2013” and The Dublin City Council’s “Incubation Space Award” for The Synchronised Lecture Series, a performative event that featured in nine key Irish educational institutions simultaneously.

In 2014 Naomi was selected for The Artist in Residency Program at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) where she presented performance work at The Project Space and curated the 6IX Degrees event. In 2017, she will present a solo exhibition at The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin, Ireland.

www.naomi-sex.com