An evening of two new performative works by artists Flis Holland and Joy Mariama Smith that stretch the limits of communication, access, and perception. Together, the performances invite questions of connection, collectivity, and liberation — whether through an interstellar signal or the refusal of dominant sensory hierarchies. The commissions are produced as part of the “Everyday Priorities – Art, Technology and Accommodations” project.
Flis Holland: Unansible
The Ansible network1 offers instantaneous interstellar communication. No delays. No static. Seamless exchanges, said to dissolve the distances between us and foster understanding. Yet the signal, for all its perfection, feels alien.
In this small group audio performance, we will push the Ansible beyond its intended limits in an attempt to undo the network’s polished fluency. Alt texts for astronomical images from the James Webb Space Telescope are seeds for a dialogue that slows, thickens, and splinters, opening up space for more voices.
- Ansible (derived from ‘answerable’) coined by Ursula K. Le Guin, a concept developed in “The Dispossessed: an ambiguous utopia”, 1974.
Credits for all the alt texts used in the work: Alt text by STScI Space Telescope Science Institute, adapted.
Joy Mariama Smith: Untitled [Scents Sense]
Joy Mariama Smith’s Untitled [Scents Sense] is a performative intervention that uses access intimacy and seemingly supportive technologies to consider the implications of Anosmia (aka ‘smell blindness’) in relation to colonial histories, diasporic identities, and the hierarchy of the senses.
In this intervention, assistive technologies, in conjunction with audio and video, accompany selected smells. Together, they invite the viewer to consider borders, boundaries, access, power, policing, stigmatization, as well as collectivity, liberation, intimacy, care, migration, and resistance through the lens of the olfactory.
Flis Holland (UK/FI) tracks the collisions of neurodivergent, trans and celestial bodies. Using video, apps, and audio tours they try to resist visual capture and categorisation, to loosen the link between seeing a body and knowing it.
Holland’s solo show “Off-Colour” was at Helsinki Art Museum in 2023. Recent group shows incl. Oulun Taidemuseo, Pori Biennial, Pitted Dates and Bemis Center, plus screenings at Rakkautta & Anarkiaa, Uppsala, Kasseler Dokfest and BAFICI. In 2025 they are supported by a grant from Taiteen edistämiskeskus.
Flis Holland’s performance is in collaboration with composer Juulia Haverinen (FI).
Juuli Haverinen is a Helsinki-based composer, musician and sound artist. She explores the intersections of voice, identity and technology through music, installations and performance.
A native Philadelphian currently based in Amsterdam, NL, Joy Mariama Smith’s work primarily addresses the conundrum of projected identities in various contexts. A sub-theme, or ongoing question in their work is: What is the interplay between the body and it’s physical environment?
Rooted in socially engaged art practice, they are a performance / installation / movement artist, activist, facilitator, curator, researcher, dramaturg and architectural designer. They have a strong improvisational practice spanning over 20 years. When they choose to teach, they actively try to uphold inclusive spaces.