Ria’s biography
My practice pays close attention to memory, identity, human relationships, the rewriting of narratives and often invites participation and exchange between myself and audiences, seeking to blur the relationship between performer and audience, space and situation in order to open new spaces of thought and exchange.
Informed by my lived experiences, I make process-based biographically driven work that explores the intersections of race, class gender and sexual orientation. My body’s archive is opened, shared and witnessed through ritual, self-initiated rites of passage, and biomythologies. I take risks in working towards the potential of transformation (of both self & other) through creating contexts and experiences, and by holding spaces which invite, summon, activate and shift.
My practice overall is a contextual life enquiry, which responds to generations of systemic violence & oppression and is concerned with the decolonisation, healing, reclamation and transformation of my psyche & soma. Extensive auto-ethnographic research, tacit knowledge’s & esoteric practices heavily inform my work. Healing and integration is both my praxis & political action.
As opposed to more conventional modes of aesthetics, I labour on acts of resistance, self-determination, vulnerability, authenticity, empowerment and being uncompromising and unapologetic in my truth. I exist in a constant state of liminality, personal evolution and growth. I am interested in how my embodiment of liminality and intersecting identities can be activated as a political site of radical agency, action, healing, empowerment and possibility.
My work is focused in four main areas: work for and of the self; work to share with audiences; collaboration and co-creation; and new models and practices of production for empowering creative communities. I also work as a consultant & mentor, facilitate and lead workshops, present talks, and develop pedagogy.
Find out more about Ria Righteous on her website.
