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In pictures: BA Acting and Performance students collaborate with Dress for Our Time

A woman wearing a white canvas tent as a dress is standing in an outside space while people in black hold the edges of the dress fabric.
  • Written bySarah McLean
  • Published date 07 December 2021
A woman wearing a white canvas tent as a dress is standing in an outside space while people in black hold the edges of the dress fabric.
BA Acting and Performance students collaborated with Prof. Helen Storey's Dress for Our Time.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen

The UAL Parade for Climate Justice took place on Wednesday 10 November and saw the 1st public performance by Psychonaut Theatre, a company made up of 6 artists studying BA Acting and Performance at Wimbledon College of Arts. 

The event brought staff, students, alumni together for a day of speeches, performances and action and was part of a wider programme to coincide with COP26, demonstrating that the arts can – and must – respond to the climate and ecological emergency. 

This performance, described by Psychonaut Theatre as ‘an emergency public response piece’, was a collaboration with Professor Helen Story’s Dress for Our Time: a project which uses the power of fashion to communicate climate change and the mass displacement of people.

A group of 7 pople standing in a tent-like room looking at the camera. At the centre of the group is a woman in a white canvas dress and hood, next to a woman in a red jacket. The other people all wear black.
BA Acting and Performance students Arielle Zilkha, Eva Mateos Rodriguez, Karola Kosecka, Lavinia Grippa, Teck Krol and Jaya Twill with Prof. Helen Storey.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen

The performance centred around the dress, which has been created from a decommissioned UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) refugee tent that once housed a displaced Syrian family.

Since its first public display in November 2015, the dress has traveled to various locations where it has digitally displayed scientific data, showing the impact of climate change on our physical world, broadening the dialogue around migration, and highlighting the millions of displaced people and the paths they take in search of a better life.

The piece was devised and performed entirely by Psychonaut Theatre members Arielle Zilkha, Eva Mateos Rodriguez, Karola Kosecka, Lavinia Grippa, Teck Krol and Jaya Twill.

Speaking about the piece, Psychonaut Theatre said: “Starting to work on this performance was a very challenging process. We knew the story behind the dress and what it represented but we didn’t have the opportunity to work directly with it until the very day of the performance…

“As soon as we all got in contact with the dress on the day we got carried away by the energy and the weight that it transported, and it almost seemed like it was the dress leading the performance rather than us. What we experienced during the performance was something very powerful and overwhelming, but also beautiful and fulfilling. We are grateful for having had the opportunity to work on such a meaningful project.”

A woman wearing a large canvas dress stands with her arms out while people dressed in black pull at the edges of the dress fabric to stretch it.
BA Acting and Performance students perform at the Parade for Climate Justice on 10 November 2021 at Chelsea College of Arts.
BA (Hons) Acting and Performance, Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL | Photograph: Carmen Stricklen
A woman in a dress made of white canvas with a large blue logo on it stands surrounded by people in black holding the edges of her dress.
BA Acting and Performance students performing at the UAL Parade for Climate Justice.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen
In the foreground, a woman in a large canvas tent dress is standing - the UNHCR logo is clearly printed in pale blue on the canvas fabric. A person in black is lying at the edge of the dress gripping the fabric. In the background are placards and s brightly coloured flower sculpture.
BA Acting and Performance students perform at the UAL Parade for Climate Justice.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen
A woman in a white canvas tent dress is looming over a person dressed in black cowering back during an outdoor performance on grass.
BA Acting and Performance student performance.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen
A woman in a voluminous tent dress performs on grass as the canvas of the dress billows around her mid-movement.
BA Acting and Performance students perform their collaboration with Dress for Our Time at UAL Parade for Climate Justice.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen
A woman lying on the grass wearing a voluminous canvas tent dress which billows around her.
BA Acting and Performance student Arielle Zilkha.
| Photograph: Carmen Stricklen

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