Harbour House, Kingsbridge, Devon
Community is at the heart of Harbour House, a welcoming contemporary art and wellbeing centre in Kingsbridge, South Devon. Community, and collaboration, was also central to this summer’s visit to the town by Ekleido, who presented the acclaimed Splice as part of Kingsbridge Fair Week 2026 alongside a series of movement and art-making workshops.
So, it is perhaps no surprise that the two should come together in a small but well-put together, and rather engaging exhibition. Following that free, outdoor performance by choreographic duo Hannah Ekholm and Faye Stoeser, enjoyed by around 400 people on a Saturday afternoon in July, Harbour House is encouraging everyone to come and explore Ekleido’s movement, ideas and creative process.
Photo Dom Moore
As part of their Fair Week project, Ekholm and Stoeser worked with pupils from Kingsbridge Community Primary School and Kingsbridge Community College, leading workshops that explored movement and creative expression.
In the first room, the eye is immediately drawn to artworks produced by the youngsters themselves that are displayed alongside photographs from Ekleido’s Rorschach. Inspired by Rorschach inkblot tests, the work sees dancers reimagine the inkblot shapes created creating symmetrical shapes and using their bodies as a sort of ink in motion.
Artwork produced by workshop participants at Kingsbridge Community Primary School and Kingsbridge Community College
Photo David Mead
Seen on their own, the excellent colourful drawings and paintings could easily be taken as abstract but when put alongside the source material, the connection is very, very clear. A couple are particularly exception but the whole display really is a celebration of creativity.
Visitors are also encouraged to make their own artwork. Taking Ekleido’s creative process and imagery as their cue, people can experiment with movement and symmetry before documenting their choreographed poses using an instant camera. They’re then left with choice: take their pictures home or add them to the ever-evolving exhibition.
Ekholm and Stoeser work with film as well as live performance, and the next room explores their recent creation, Nepenthe, the film presented alongside a model that reconstructs the domestic setting in which the action takes place, and photographs from the filming process.
Created under Sadler’s Wells’ The Floor Is Yours commission series, the short seven-and-a-half minute film that follows two women drifting through clearly painful memories and emotional experiences is riveting. The camerawork is superb. Clever use of close-ups and unusual angles, allows the viewer right into the thoughts of the dancers. But like all the best dance films, Ekholm, Stoeser and director Jordan Chandler never allow the choreographic voice to be swamped. It really is very, very good. Awards surely beckon.
Finally, the exhibition returns to Splice in the shape of a recording of a live performance and an art film, again superbly directed by Chandler, shown in rotation.
The Ekleido exhibition at Harbour House, Kingsbridge is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-5pm, until September 26, 2026. Admission free.