RIA Presents:
Simeon Barclay, The Ruin
at the ICA, London
In January 2025, we presented The Ruin, a new performance commission by Simeon Barclay investigating British identity through a personal lens. The Ruin was presented in London in partnership with the ICA. It will tour to The Hepworth Wakefield in Spring 2025.
The commission is part of our Practicing Performance programme which debuted in 2023 with a new operatic work developed with artist Rachel Jones. Practising Performance provides support for visual artists who are interested in exploring live performance.
With our support Simeon Barclay developed The Ruin over a year-long period that included R&D conversations with artist, performance maker, researcher and designer Moi Tran and theatre designer Agnes Treplin to explore performance and staging.
The Ruin features a poetic text written and performed by Barclay alongside live percussion by James Larter and horn by Isaac Shieh to investigate British identity, in relation to masculinity, race and class. The piece introduces Barclay's own history growing up in Huddersfield with Caribbean parents and reflects on the post-industrial landscape and society of northern England in the 1980s and 90s.
“What part of us is lost when we adopt an identity, particularly under precarity? For [Simeon Barclay], this performance adds visceral intimacy and vulnerability to his practice.”
— Frieze, January 2025
The soundscape of The Ruin blends spoken word, rhythm and melody, developed through workshops with Larter and Shieh. It draws on musical influences ranging from early modern music to the industrial sounds Barclay recalls from his youth, creating a powerful exploration of collaboration, voice and sound. Through this new performance, Barclay examines the power of creativity in the face of dispossession and challenges the tropes of British identity through a personal lens.
You can read a Q&A with the artist here.
Barclay is known for his sculptural and installation practice which is rooted in material histories. He uses pop cultural references to discuss personal and cultural memory and navigate imposed and self-created identities. Barclay has long been interested in the body and the self, investigating how self-image is created and grappled with. Fashion, dance, the theatrical, posing and adornments are intricately woven throughout his work and have informed the evolution of this new performance work.
"Working through the fundamentals of performance with RIA on this new commission has enabled me to explore less obvious aspects of my sculptural practice such as how bodies move and are shaped by space, architecture, light, and sound. These elements are integral to how I approach art making, and through this process, I’ve been able to connect them with other areas I have long been interested in, including language, the potential of sonic space, self-projection, and British identity. I’m excited about discovering a new expansion of my practice and a fresh way of working.”
— Simeon Barclay
In Spring 2025, The Ruin will tour to The Hepworth Wakefield. This is part of our mission to make performance more sustainable by presenting works more than once and to different audiences across the UK. More information to come soon.
Kate Davies, RIA Director says: “We are thrilled to be working with Simeon Barclay this year. His interventions in the architecture of spaces through light and sound along with his use of atmosphere, humour and his very particular relationship to language are areas we wanted to build on with this commission. We hope this opportunity to develop a live work from concept to realisation opens up new realms of possibilities for Simeon’s practice and process in future.”
ICA Director, Bengi Ünsal added, "The ICA is pleased to collaborate with the Roberts Institute of Art, reinforcing its commitment to supporting interdisciplinary artists such as Simeon Barclay. We are delighted to welcome this talented multidisciplinary artist as he embarks on a new trajectory into performance.”
