New collaboration with Dam Van Huynh
Elaine Mitchener joins long term collaborators choreographer Dam Van Huynh and Sound Designer Michael Picknett to present a new work-in-progress with concept by Van Huynh at Rich Mix – London on Saturday 14 March 2026 as part of Certain Blacks Festival 2026 ‘Black Athena’.
Following a commission by Fruitmarket – Edinburgh, they recently premiered Moving Eastman and Graffiti Bodies II. With this new commission by Certain Blacks – Graffiti Bodies XV – Van Huynh continues his reflexion on the theme of marginalisation, sparking a discussion on who controls the narratives and who possesses the authority to tell their stories. This new piece is inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work La Hara (1981) which addresses the police brutality faced by marginalised urban communities in New York in the 1980s. Basquiat challenged conventional narratives, questioned power structures and gave voice to diverse communities. He was called a “graffiti artist” by some to ostracise his art from the “high art” canon. Reflecting on this, Van Huynh reclaims the word ‘graffiti’ as a form of empowerment for himself and other marginalised voices, shaping their own narratives. Through a sensory overload of movement and a cacophony of sound and visual noise, the work – performed by Elaine Mitchener – reflects on Basquiat’s social commentary, urging us to resist the cyclical nature of history.
Graffiti Bodies XV
Saturday 14 March 2026, 7.30pm
Rich Mix – London
www.richmix.org.uk