Ashley and Domenik have been working together since 2019 and met while they were studying. They remember the first meeting as if it were yesterday.”We were both picking up trash when we started talking. What immediately made us click was the fact that we were both inspired by everything that other people leave behind outside.” Since then, they share all their inspirations and creativity with each other.
Why is it working so well between you two?
According to the two, their dynamic is so strong because they complement each other perfectly. They give each other enough space and in this collaboration there is no room for judgments. They describe the dynamics using the following metaphor:
“Sometimes it feels like we are climbing a high mountain. You keep going and do your best but there comes a point when you get exhausted and you may want to stop. At that moment it is the other who motivates the other again and gives them a little push.”
This is how they alternate and climb to the top of the mountain together.
Can you tell us something about your work?
“Our work can be found in the midst of play, care, danger, magic, intensity, humour, and weight. We curate performative encounters characterised by transmediality – working across dance, poetry, scenography, music, graphic design, and film.
We care about being led by desire, the magic of materiality and materialising, and the bareness and plainness within that.
We believe in performance as a social practice, a political, intimate practice of transforming and being transformed. Our current research trajectory is based on anarchival approaches to documenting, rhizomic thinking, and worlding. This line of inquiry discourses with our performative explorations. ”
Ho Yuhan Ashley (she/they, 1999) is a Singaporean artist who works from the perspective of movement. Her work plays across performing, performance-making, writing, graphic design, sound-tinkering, filmmaking, and scenography. She is presently preoccupied with documenting practices, martial arts, and technologies of caring. As a performer, their experience includes processes with Ingrid Berger Myhre, Zarah Bracht, Ula Sickle, David Weber-Krebs, Marjolein Vogels, Coralie Vogelaar, Lee Mun Wai, Dunja Jocic, Dario Tortorelli, and Keren Rosenberg.
Their first poetry collection, without sound now, was published in 2019 by Math Paper Press. Ashley is supported by the Singapore National Arts Council Scholarship in her dancer/maker studies at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands.
Domenik Naue (he/him, 1998) is a transmedial artist with a background in gymnastics, dance and theatre. He grew up in Weimar, Germany, where he was surrounded by many cultural institutions. This was intimidating at times, yet it stimulated his interest in creating and experiencing art. His work(-ing) combines physical movement, music composition, graphic design and videography. Throughout his teenage-hood he created theatre performances at a youth theatre in collaboration with his friends.
Domenik’s movement background spans dance, gymnastics and circus practices. He has worked as a performer with artists such as Nicole Beutler, Dunja Jocic, Keren Rosenberg, Dario Tortorelli, Corneliu Ganea, Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo and Kazue Ikeda.
Domenik & Ashley – v3 from Dansateliers on Vimeo.