Simon Whitehead and Barnaby Oliver were introduced at the Choreographers and Composers Exchange in December 1995, a forum to promote artistic exchange, initiated by the South Bank Centre, London.
In spring 1996 they began research into their first work big muff, and they have since developed their collaborative relationship through a body of performance works that incorporate an attitude to making that is bound by underlying notions of deep ecology and is influenced by their relative geographical distance.
The working process has developed remotely between Whitehead’s base in rural Wales and Oliver’s base in London and more recently Melbourne, Australia. Their work embraces this cultural and physical geography in different ways.
The research with sound, movement and place sensitivity are ongoing, and a concern with blurring the edges between inner and outer, nature and culture, the body and environment, real and imaginary, continue to drive the collaboration into hybrid territory.