The conversation

I was invited by long-term collaborator Harry Yeff aka Reeps 100 to attend a first-of-its-kind week long artist retreat in the Catalunya foothills of Spain. As part of the residency, we were asked to create a work that responded to the theme of ‘Permission’.

In making this piece, I found myself confronting questions I hadn’t realised I was carrying—about identity, inheritance, and the imprints our parents leave on us. Through Laura’s ( Laura Cunningham & Fox House’s Patron) remarkable testimony, I felt a quiet kinship: both of us grappling with what can and can’t be said between parent and child, whether they’re still alive or not. Some conversations always seem just out of reach—and that absence leaves a particular kind of ache.

Laura’s voice—her Newcastle accent set against this surreal Catalonian landscape—sparked an idea: an imagined, ongoing dialogue between a daughter and her father, unbound by time or mortality. It offered something unexpectedly hopeful—an emotional space that stretched beyond what’s usually possible.

This work only came into being through the generosity and spirit of the artist retreat at Foxhouse, led by Reeps100. It was the first time I allowed myself to call what I make art. And this piece belongs to everyone who helped shape it—from Laura’s story and poetry to Ilā’s spontaneous score, and Kiera’s embodied response through movement.

My sincerest thanks to all the Fox house artists in residence.

credits

Words: Laura Cunningham
Choreography: Keira Johnson
Original Score: Ilā Kamalagharan / HausofIla
Edit: Simon Waldron & Sarah Grohnert