We are delighted to at long last introduce the recipients of TAP’s Associate Artists Award and brand new Associate Black Artist Award!
Each year, the Associate Artist(s) Award is given to a BA Theatre and Performance student or group, recognising outstanding success in their final year project, TAP In ’20. The Associate Artists receive a bursary and are nurtured in their first year after graduation. The Award can be used for research and development, technical and resource support, outreach, mentoring, and business development.
When COVID-19 restrictions forced TAP’s yearly theatre festival to go online, student reps suggested that money saved from unspent performance budgets should be used to promote Black students’ work. And so, this year we excitedly invited applicants for the Associate Black Artist Award.
Now, without further adieu, meet are our Associate Artists, Seven Veils Collective, and Associate Black Artist, Jim Osman!
Seven Veils Collective

Describe Seven Veils Collective in three words:
Provocative, corporeal, intermedial.
Give an overview of your TAP In’ 20 performance, Pallas/Athena, and how you came up with the concept…
Using found materials stemming from an interest in mythology, we wanted to explore how we can subvert the expectations of storytelling. We did this using dance and movement as a material alongside written myths of how the goddess Athena got her name. Due to Covid-19 and transforming our show into a digital, interactive experience, we presented the implications of contemporary adaptation, in both its potential and its restrictions.
If I was coming to a Seven Veils show, what should I expect?
Expect a shift in your role as an active audience member. We aim to curate a space that re-orientates your natural perception of material and narratives. We do this by challenging the conditions in which bodies and theatrical elements interact on stage.
What is the process of creating your work?
Devising as an ensemble, we work from found materials such as poetry, music and film, as well as the personal experiences of our group. We use improvisation exercises grounded in movement to explore this material and introduce the presence of technology.
What do you hope to achieve this year?
We hope to refine our dramaturgy and technique as a group. We also want to facilitate student workshops and local outreach, and we will create a new project for the public (whether live or digital!).
What does being an Associate Artist mean to you?
During this period of uncertainty in the arts and culture, we are so pleased to have the support of the department and a creative environment to work in during our first year as freelance theatre makers.
Jim Osman

Describe your art in three words?
Deciphering, provocative, accessible.
Give an overview of your TAP In’ 20 performance, Elven Hipsters, and how you came up with the concept…
Elven Hipsters is a mockumentary with Jim Henson-style puppets and explores the topic of gentrification in London through a Tolkienesque/fantasy lens. The show intends to critique gentrification and stereotypes of the British working classes whilst at the same time deconstructing the racial narratives in Tolkein’s The Lord of The Rings. The idea started as a concept for a card game, using the puppets to promote the game at board game conventions. The performance was originally going to be a theatre play but when we had to make our theatre projects into films for our end-of-year show, the mockumentary format seemed the most appropriate for the concept and the time and resources I had.
If I was coming to a Jim Osman show, what should I expect?
There aren’t really any strong unifying factors that I’d say encompass all the work I make. Except that I often explore Science Fiction and Fantasy, but I don’t always work in those realms. Audiences can expect to see things they are familiar with explored in a new way, I tend to interpret life in an intersectional-feminist/Marxist framework so even if the piece I’m doing isn’t inherently political, expect to see popular themes deconstructed and displayed in a way that makes us think twice about accepted styles and norms. I hope that my work is empowering and inspiring, and that the performers are enjoying the experience of performing.
What is the process of creating your work?
It varies from project to project, I love working collaboratively and exploring different rehearsal methods. Organisation is incredibly important, I use the Trello app for project management. If it’s a classical work I strongly believe in ‘serving the text’, though I often decide that classical works are begging to be re-worked and made accessible to a contemporary audience! I don’t believe in crowbarring a contemporary setting into a classical piece, however, I don’t think we should make the same tired ‘museum pieces’ that just rehash old styles and aren’t communicating something thought-provoking or timely.
If it’s a brand-new contemporary piece then I think I work in a similar way to Quentin Tarantino (minus the misogyny and cultural appropriation), in the sense that he takes story-telling forms audiences are already familiar with and deconstructs them, putting a magnifying glass to a particular element that most people don’t usually see or focus on.
What do you hope to achieve this year?
For the award, I’ll be making a cyberpunk/SciFi opera, Mother Lode. It’s an opera for electronic music, two vocalists, two violinists and will be on at Gossamer Fog, a gallery focused on Science and Technology in Deptford. The opera is about two E-sports (competitive video gaming) players in a dystopian cyberpunk Megacity i.e. Judge Dredd, Blade Runner. The show will be a homage to cyberpunk fiction, 80s nostalgia and a poignant metaphor for Bernaysian propaganda in late capitalism. It’ll be in August – October 2021 and my hope is that we do a UK tour!
I got funding from Folkestone Puppetry Festival to do another episode of Elven Hipsters, the next one will be much shorter, about 5 minutes. We’ll also be creating the Elven Hipsters card game and will be presenting it at board game conventions around the UK.
Lastly, I’ll be directing a baroque opera for the classical music department at Goldsmiths, which I am particularly excited about.
What does being an Associate Artist mean to you?
It means a lot, I have loved being at Goldsmiths so I feel validated to have received this award. I’m very happy to be able to represent Goldsmiths moving forward into my professional life.
The award I received was an associate black artists award but my current piece Mother Lode, despite the fact it will have a non-white cast, doesn’t explore any racial themes. I hope that it will be empowering for people to see artists of colour making work that isn’t specifically to do with their heritage and identity. That isn’t to say I am not a fan of identity-based work, but I think it’s important for minorities to be able to make work that interests them without feeling a pressure to make the work they think the world expects them to make.
Any further comments?
Thank you for the award! I’ve been so inspired by artists, lecturers and researchers at Goldsmiths! I hope to be a researcher at a University myself one day and think it’s amazing that environments like Goldsmiths exist, they are so important.
You can watch Pallas/Athena and Elven Hipsters at tapoutgoldsmiths.com