Stand of the sun
A solstice ritual for the melting metropolis, where environmental history meets the wonder of celestial interconnectedness.
Emerging from and expanding upon stories held in My Body is a Sundial, Stand of the Sun is a multi-disciplinary storytelling experience that stirs empathy for an entity so different to ourselves, yet intertwined with our fate. Tilting closer to the hot heart of our solar system on solstice night, audiences, academics and artists wonder together: How does the Sun experience our over-heating world? What would the Sun say to humanity today, if only we could listen? What does it feel like to move through our too-hot cities and heat-stroked bodies? How does it feel to be held, ricocheting between man-made materials and modernity?
Photograph credits: Alberto Romano, www.albertoromano.co.uk, Orleans House Gallery 2025
Performance: Stand of the Sun. Abridged film by North South, 2025, commissioned by Wellcome Discovery Award project Melting Metropolis.
As the sun sets overhead, call and response between human and star grows through music, spoken word, dance, lighting and sculpture.
The performance guides audiences through time and space, from deep-time beginnings into the present-day metropolis. Here, inequities and uncanny qualities to our celestial relationship surface as we observe our cities through the solar gaze, wondering together: What wisdom(s) might emerge from an embodied attentiveness to, compassion for and broader sense of community?Body-time and solar-time converge with environmental history to explore the emergence of urban heat islands in London, New York, Port of Spain and Paris.
The performance is inspired and commissioned by the ongoing Wellcome Discovery Award research project Melting Metropolis. It was first performed in 2025 as part of the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival at Orleans House Gallery.
Cast & crew:
Antoine Marc: Choreographer & dancer
Aron Kyne: Sound designer
Austin Tang: Lighting technician
Bryony Ella: Writer/director, spoken word & lyrics
Bumi Thomas: Composer, voice & lyrics
Carlene Etienne: Steel pan
Clare Hirst: Flute & saxophone
Cosimo Keita: Percussion
Elixir: Sound healing & ambient soundscape
Emmanuel Clem: Voice
Han Sayles: Production electrician
Kieron Daniel: Cello
Joanna Penso: Producer
Max Rademacher: Ngoni, voice & guitar
Miles Danso: Upright bass
Olia Poliakova: Dancer
Pharoah Russell: Drums
Rachel Sampley: Lighting designer
Renako McDonald: Dancer
Robert Dunkley-Gyimah: Dancer
Rose Aida Sall Sao: Dancer
Sade Alleyne: Dancer
Tomi Allen-Nurse: Jewellery designer
Vincenzo Capodivento: Sound engineer
behind the scenes
A behind-the-scenes film documenting the process and value of interdisciplinary collaboration between academics and artists.
Film by Hannah Earl, 2025: https://hannahearl.com/, supported by a University of Liverpool Higher Education Impact grant and commissioned by Melting Metropolis, a Wellcome Discovery Award project.
