Decolonizing Relaxed Performance: A Visual Translation of Vital Ecosystems

Abstract

This essay draws on the visual translations produced by artist Sonny Bean in response to the 2022 report, Relaxed Performance: Exploring University-based Training Across Fashion, Theatre and Choir. Relaxed performance (RP) is a wide-reaching movement toward accessibility in arts that challenges normative comportment in performance contexts and has evolved into a contemporary cross-sector vital practice rooted in disability justice. Through a selection of illustrations, Bean transforms human-centric data about RPs into a vital ecosystem that extends to the more-than-human world, denoting the complex interconnectedness of RP production in a settler colonial state.