Difficult Joys (1995)

An early installation and performance work by Jools Gilson (then Gilson-Ellis), first performed at Border Tensions: Dance & Discourse, University of Surrey, UK (1995) and the following year at Dartington Arts Gallery, Devon, UK (1996). The work explored ideas related to femininity, writing and water and involved underwater choreography / writing in a glass tank, and the sculptural use of ice both as blocks containing writing / objects (Border Tensions) and frozen sculptures of the artists’ face (Dartington Arts Gallery).  

Performance: Jools Gilson-Ellis
Technical Director: Neil Smith
Thanks: Ian Ingram, Aqua Stands, Whitchurch, Shropshire, UK

Jools Gilson-Ellis (1995) ‘Difficult Joys’. In: Adshead-Lansdale, Janet (ed). Border Tensions: Dance and Discourse,
Guildford: University of Surrey Press, pp.373 – 374.