Eddie Peake produces large-scale choreographed performance pieces that manipulate the human body through movement and sound. His work commonly uses tableaux of groups of performers arranged in statuesque or highly eroticised poses as a point of departure for an ensuing sequence of dramatic movements and interactions. Often a semblance of narrative arises through the process of devising the works, albeit one in which the specific details are pointedly ambiguous. Music and sound become key elements in guiding the way in which one views the movements and poses held by the performers’ bodies. Exploring voyeurism, eroticism and gender, Peake creates an intensely intimate experience, causing his audience to examine their own responses of discomfort or arousal. Whilst Peake’s performances have invariably been presented live with an audience, the videos documenting them have come to be works in their own right, distinct from but integrally connected to their live counterparts.
Eddie Peake graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2006 and is in his final year of postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools. He has recently had solo shows at Cell Project Space, London, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome (both 2012) and Mihai Nicodim, Los Angeles (2011), while previous solo presentations include Christopher Crescent (2011), Southard Reid (2011) and Parade (2008) in London. Recent performances include Creating And Collapsing A Drama, Or How It Must Feel To Be An Ill Dog Wearing One Of Those Plastic Head Funnels, David Roberts Art Foundation, London; and Amidst A Sea Of Flailing High Heels And Cooking Utensils, part one at the Tanks, Tate Modern, London and part two at Chisenhale Gallery, London (all 2012).Peake has solo shows opening at White Cube, Bermondsey and at Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK in 2013.