Staffordshire St presents a collaborative exhibition by Daisy Harvey and Flora Hunt;  I Should Coco is centred around a site-specific inlaid lino dancefloor, and a participatory country dance event. 

 

The show explores collective play and choreographed movement through a physical environment, combining Daisy’s interest in social choreography and performance with Flora’s thinking around ritual, storytelling, and collectivism. Harvey and Hunt use directional shapes to guide visitors’ movements across the floor of the gallery space. Repeating motifs, surreal props and written slogans present fragments of a fantastical narrative.

 

The lino floor is a stage for activity throughout the show’s run with participatory events based on traditional country dances creating collective experience around the work. Country dance is a social dance performed by a group, with simple steps often aided by a ‘caller’ who teaches and calls out the steps, the aim being that people can join in without knowing the dance.

 

The artists’ research is based on a long history of Country dancing in Britain, they have used written and drawn dance notation as inspiration for the floor design. Their use of colour reflects both artist’s ongoing research on post war and mid century lino flooring designs, brightly coloured, garish and kitsch; lino’s functionality - its use in kitchens, hospitals and schools - and the aesthetic with intricate, highly decorative designs. By repurposing the lino flooring as an artwork, they elevate it as a material to be celebrated. 

 

The work is a gathering space, pulling on ideas of communal events, celebrations from contemporary London nightlife and music subculture, to debutante balls, marches and protests.

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This event is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.