Aidan Moesby: I was Naked, Smelling of Rain

Aidan Moesby’s latest work, ‘I was Naked, Smelling of Rain’ is a performance exploring men's mental health, absence, presence, loneliness and dis/ connectedness through the lens of weather, climate change and wellbeing.

Aidan Moesby is an artist, curator and writer who explores civic and personal wellbeing through a body of work that is at once playful, intimate, questioning and deeply human. His practice is a socially engaged one, rooted in research and response – in conversation of many kinds. He works extensively within arts and health and has a particular interest in the spaces where art, technology and wellbeing intersect. Aidan regularly curates and participates in events and discussions which centre these ideas.

Underpinning his work investigating the dual crises of Climate Change and Mental Health is an exploration into the relationships between the outer ‘physical weather’ we experience, and our ‘internal psycho-emotional weather’. Aidan’s creations are equally likely to be found beyond formal arts institutions as within them and his practice includes both Disability Arts and mainstream representation as artist and curator.

A resident at Pervasive Media Studio, Watershed, Bristol he increasingly makes large scale, tourable works. This includes Sagacity: The Periodic Table of Emotions, an interactive digital installation and Between Stillness and Storm, an off-grid weather responsive installation which premiered at Bluedot Festival in 2017.

His latest work, I was Naked, Smelling of Rain is a performative lecture exploring absence, presence, loneliness and dis/ connectedness through the lens of weather, climate change and wellbeing.

He has worked, exhibited and curated nationally and internationally working with partners such as Dundee Contemporary Arts, Newcastle University, NSUN, WIP:Stockholm, The Tetley, DASH, New Media Scotland, ANAT (AUS), Watershed, Pikene på Broen (NO), Jadraas Art(SE:SU) Arc Stockton and The Sick of the Fringe.

Interpreter: Daryl McMullan

“I was expecting the performance might make me cry. And it did – Aidan’s honesty and vulnerability is deeply moving. I didn’t expect to laugh – but his dry, observational humour made me really crack up. I didn’t expect such a simple stage setting and performance to be so cinematic, so transporting, so rich. I could listen to Aidan – and the rich score that wraps around him – again and again" Clare Reddington CEO Watershed, Bristol.

 "I was Naked, Smelling of Rain has intriguing observations, sensitivity, humour, poignancy and at its heart, a raw honesty about the loneliness and complexities of modern life.” Trish Wheatley DAO

“This revelatory performance was both poignant and humorous - linking external and internal events, using the weather as a metaphor. It was thought provoking and I found myself returning to the themes it raised for several days. Aidan held the stage and audience - you could have heard a pin drop and then he would shift a gear and have everyone laughing" Annabel Turpin, Arc Theatre Stockton.