In conversation with Daria Blum

“Even before I started performing within my own work (first to camera and later live) I was approaching most mediums with rhythm, musicality, and choreography in mind.”

 - Daria Blum

Daria Blum. Image credit Shaun James Cox

Multidisciplinary artist Daria Blum graduated from the RA Schools in 2023, and in September that year won the inaugural Claridge’s Royal Academy Schools Art Prize – a £30,000 award selected by judges Yinka Shonibare CBE, RA and Eva Rothschild RA. The award was presented by performance artist Marina Abramović and introduced by actor, author and co-host of Talk Art Russell Tovey at the iconic Claridge’s, bringing to life a three-year long partnership to showcase standout art.

The result of this is now on show for the public to enjoy, with Daria Blum’s exhibition Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot at Claridge’s ArtSpace. The show centres around a three-channel video work which follows Blum’s fictional character as she walks through deserted rooms and corridors of a disused 1970’s office building. The protagonist comes across a cachet of materials which she reenacts as an act of reclamation: black and white portraits of Blum’s late grandmother, the Ukrainian ballerina and choreographer Daria Nyzankiwska, archival recordings of dance rehearsals, and footage of a 2022 performance by Blum herself. Through a series of live performances, Blum further inhabits a live character who disrupts and criticizes, pointing fingers at the bodies on-screen and the voices offstage.

It’s intriguing; it’s engaging. It’s sometimes unnerving. It’s something you just have to go and experience for yourselves. We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to dive a little deeper with the artist herself about her journey, her practice, and this extraordinary exhibition.

How did you begin your journey into art? Was it a creative environment where you grew up in Lucerne?

As children, my brother and I were always encouraged to draw. Our mother would hang giant sheets of paper on the walls of our bedrooms on which we could scribble. I also had a teacher in grades 1 – 3 who took our class to see Giacometti and Picasso exhibitions and organised extracurricular painting classes. I took weekly dance lessons at my mother’s ballet school from the age of three, and performed on stage in the annual recitals.

What was it about the London art scene and art colleges that ultimately made you want to study here?

Before moving here I’d never imagined myself living in London — when I’d visited the city in the past, I hadn’t really connected with it. But it seemed like London universities offered a really exciting programme. I applied to several BA Fine Art courses and ended up at Central Saint Martins. When I first moved to the city, I felt very energised by the competitive and fast pace of London life. Now that I’m used to it, it can sometimes be too much.

Drip Drip Point War Spin Buckle Rot, Daria Blum. Image credit Julian Blum.

Your work is inherently performative, comprised of both music and dance, which also comes from training in ballet from an early age. Has this always been a core part of expression for you as an artist?

Yes, I think so. Even before I started performing within my own work (first to camera and later live) I was approaching most mediums with rhythm, musicality, and choreography in mind. I always think about the way in which objects enter and exit a space, and the time-based nature of experiencing still works of art.

Now we often see you ‘multiplying’ yourself and interacting with those ‘selves’ – using your body and your voice alongside site-specific architecture.

This came quite naturally out of a desire to externalise an inner monologue, specifically a conversation among multiple parts, in order to better portray conflicting viewpoints. The idea of how choreography travels is interesting, as is the topic of its colonial tropes.

Daria Blum. Image credit Shaun James Cox.

How does your work express that, also bringing into play the element of your own mapping of a family tree?

During a recent residency in France, I came across archival images and newspaper clippings about performers, dancers, or ballet masters—names or faces I recognized from my mother’s stories of her time as a dancer. I began to map out a family tree through notes, photographs and conversations with her, and was able to connect via various dance figures to her mother Daria Nyzankiwska, who was a ballerina at Ukraine’s Lviv Opera House. In the video there is this attempt to ‘embody’ the grandmother I never knew, synchronising my own movements with the still poses of her in black and white portraits.

Shown in the video piece is my mother’s ballet school in Lucerne, Switzerland. To me, these now demolished dance studios act as a gateway to reflections on classical dance as an ‘archeological site’, where history, knowledge, and new interpretations can be extracted. I am also interested in the idea of hierarchy within classical ballet companies, and how, historically, this reflected the hierarchy of an existing monarchy.

The film begins with the phrase ‘let me in’, which is later set against the closed doors of the Bordeaux Ballet’s rehearsal studios, alluding to the exclusive/exclusionary nature of ballet. In classical dance, striving for and being driven towards perfection, harmony and synchronisation is a reflection of an ordered society—and inherently coercive—and conceals the elimination of the ‘imperfect’. Tensed fingers, for instance, are undesirable in ballet. I use the gesture of the pointed finger as a way to access an attitude of (female) insubordination within this piece and the live performance.

Your process must be fascinating – what does your studio look like, do you have a way of working, either structured or variable, and do you have any ‘studio rituals’?

My studio is very empty! I work from home and mainly sit at my computer. I often get headaches and ‘screen claustrophobia’. But I’ve been working on a healthier routine, I try to go for walks in the park every morning and afternoon. I would love a job that requires me to work outdoors!

And how does it feel to be the inaugural winner of the Claridge’s Royal Academy Schools Art Prize?

Receiving the prize was completely unexpected and I feel extremely honoured, especially as it casts a light on the work of artists working with performance. It has been an incredible opportunity for me to create an ambitious show within the unique setting of Claridge’s ArtSpace.

Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot, Daria Blum. Image credit Julian Blum.

Can you give us a brief introduction to the themes and ideas around your upcoming show at Claridge’s ArtSpace, Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot?

The work builds on my ongoing research into muscle memory, institutional power and degradation as they relate to dance, architecture, and intergenerational female relationships. The show is conceived around a three-channel video piece which follows a fictional character through deserted rooms and corridors of a declining 1970’s office building where she comes across a series of choreographies that she reenacts, together with gestures she has picked up from various sources. The sculptures in the show reference an absence of the voice, which was important to me during the making of this show. The live performance focuses on the simple gesture of the pointed finger — as a tool to claim or deflect attention — and unravels the character of the ‘performer’ to some degree.

Where does the title of the exhibition come from?

Working on the show, I had recently experienced a flood at my apartment, and my mind was filled with ideas about water leakages and drips, a home being invaded or falling apart, things related to loss, but also new beginnings. I often thematise architectural maintenance and decay in relation to interpersonal relationships and needs. Subtitles in the video piece describe the personification of this chronic jaw pain/headache as a female character who enters and disrupts the privacy of the home.

How do you see your practice developing in the near future? What would be your dream project?

I’d like to work on another EP or album in the near future.

Daria Blum: Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot runs at Claridge’s ArtSpace, Brooks Mews, until 25 October 2024. Performances will take place on 11 October and 17 October, both at 7:15pm. RSVP essential: artspace@claridges.co.uk.

For more information visit claridges.co.uk.