Rosa Postlethwaite

Animating tremors

This performance by Rosa Postlethwaite explores tension release through body and breath. The body is voluntarily shaking, long after a shock, to dispel energy. The materials for this work are a body, a room and a rosemary bush. 

This performance draws on the tools gained through participation in Melati Suryodarmo’s performance art laboratory, Present to Presence, at Ikon in May 2023. 

“My approach is to not plan too much but to really soak up the lab and act impulsively from the invitations. I’m hoping this will mean I can take in everything I can ‘in the moment’.” Rosa Postlethwaite  

Presented as part of Melati Suryodarmo’s exhibition Passionate Pilgrim (17 May – 3 September 2023). 

This exhibition is supported by Bagri Foundation, British Council through the Connections Through Culture grants programme, Birmingham City University, University of Leeds, and the Melati Suryodarmo Exhibition Circle: A.I. Gallery; ShanghART, Tanya Michele Amador and Michiel Verhoeven; and Michelangelo and Lourdes Samson.

It is developed in collaboration with Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), Jakarta, Indonesia.

About the artist

Rosa Postlethwaite works as a performance artist, dramaturg and facilitator across theatre, live art, dance and socially engaged art. They work collaboratively to make site-responsive performance, club nights, workshops and shows. Through performance Postlethwaite tries to deconstruct, slow-down, reimagine and remake forms of sociality in order to shake up the taken-for-grantedness of the way things are. Their work is informed by queer, feminist, anti-racist and socialist practices. 

Postlethwaite is currently a PhD researcher at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, and Aarhus University (2022 – 2025).