ARTEMIS

Artemis is a solo performance work conceived, written and performed by Alana Hyde Bloom, with live music by Katya Barton.

Drawing on myth, spoken word, movement and aerial silk, Artemis conjures the Greek goddess of wild animals, vegetation and the hunt. She is awakened in the ruins of a world brought to its knees by human hands. Set in a future where ecological collapse has already arrived, the work opens in the pits of a disintegrating city: Artemis stirs from the echoes of prayer, surrounded by brick and rubble, to bear witness to what we have allowed to happen. It is a work haunted by extinction and the visceral, unbearable reality of where our severed relationship with the natural world is taking us.

From this devastated landscape, the piece moves through grief, rage, ritual and the fragile possibility of return. Woven from spoken word, song, movement and aerial silk, it draws its audience through cross-disciplinary forms working in close harmony. With the poetic words landing with weight and precision, each line a reckoning. The circus diaries wrote “It is rare to find a performer who can speak and move with equal conviction”  and 

The show premiered as a sold-out double bill at Motion, Bristol in 2017, before a five-night run at VAULT Festival, London in 2019.

'Bloom’s writing and delivery is faultless, the poetic words echo around empty space, Provoking and unforgiving.' — The Circus Diaries

'One of the most evocative monologues I've experienced in years.' — Audience feedback

'With great physical and visual dexterity, she creates a bridge between worlds... leading us into a liminal landscape within which bigger issues of survival and extinction, sacred and profane, connection and fragmentation are addressed.' — ASWM Film

Concept, Production & Performance — Alana Hyde Bloom
Artwork & Music — Katya Barton
Shrine — June Heath
Costume — Ellie Walker
Photography — Ali Wright
Video — Ross Silcocks