THE PALETTE COLLECTION
DEBUT SHOW
THE PALETTE COLLECTION
The Palette Collection is the result of five years of meticulous beading and embroidery work. The series consists of ten masks, referred to as “Elements,” each individually designed and handmade. Every mask acts as an intimate exploration of Zwerg’s inner world; reflecting fragments of memory, emotion, identity, and transformation. Through intricate craft and symbolism, the collection becomes both a personal archive and a meditation on the human psyche.
At the heart of The Palette Collection is an exploration of impermanence as a constant of the human experience.
The masks suggest identity as something both constructed and transient: we inhabit roles, selves, relationships, and states of being, only to eventually shed them. What remains is the trace of experience. The masks remain materially unchanged, yet they possess an emotional genetic code that emerged during their creation, which continues to develop as each performer leaves their own imprint behind. A single object can hold multiple identities; a fixed form can become fleeting.
This evening will unfold in stages, with simultaneous performances emerging throughout the space. Artists from different backgrounds, disciplines, and practices will inhabit the masks, bringing their distinct characters into being through movement and interpretation.
There is also an element of endurance embedded within the acts.
The Elements are intentionally constructed so that the artists cannot see through them. Deprived of sight, they must navigate through sensation, instinct, sound, and trust, so masking up becomes an act of surrender.
Inside the brochure you will find all the masks numbered by order of creation, followed by a brief description explaining their original characteristics.
You are welcome to roam free around the space and approach the artists for a closer look but please do not touch them or the masks.
DANI ZWERG
Rooted in her Romanian upbringing, Dani Zwerg is an interdisciplinary artist working across abstract painting, textiles, and performance. Her practice brings together textile traditions passed down through generations of women in her family and the painting techniques taught to her by her grandfather, creating a personally unique world where inheritance, memory, and material exploration coexist.
Performance has been a constant thread throughout Dani’s life. Growing up singing, acting, and dancing on stage, and later working as a photographer throughout her teenage years and into her early twenties, she developed an understanding of the creative world from multiple perspectives.
Alongside her formal training in Specialist Makeup and SFX for Performing Arts, this has given her an in-depth understanding of visual storytelling, character, image, and the processes that exist both in front of and behind the scenes. She draws on this breadth of experience within her artistic practice, allowing different forms of expression to naturally inform and intersect with one another.
Inspired by the natural world and her own lived experience, she explores themes of identity, love, grief, and change, often reflecting on the fragile space between life and death.
IG: @zwergggg @the.palettecollection
INTRODUCING THE ARTISTS
DARVISH FAKHR
Darvish Fakhr is a half-Iranian, half-American artist whose work ranges from painting to movement art.
In his practice, he amalgamates disparate cultures by overlaying various concepts and aesthetics through interference, which can take place in any form.
Much of his performance work explores the concept of ‘The Lightness of Being’, a series made in collaboration with photographer Hugh Fox, that bring an imaged reality to life, staging impossible or gravity defying acts, without the use of editing or AI.
Darvish’s work straddles the line between beauty and destruction, whimsical and political. Using roller skates, balloons, bubbles and flying carpets, Darvish examines freedom, identity, displacement, and the human desire to transcend limitation.
The work operates simultaneously as personal mythology and cultural critique, often confronting orientalist stereotypes through wit, softness, and theatricality.
He has exhibited and performed internationally, included at The Armory Show in New York, and is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. He currently lives and works in Brighton, UK.
PRACTICING FRANK
Practicing Frank is a London-based maker, poet, live artist and Butoh dancer. Their work explores the body as material, the poetic body and invocation of transcendence. Heavily influenced by the lineage of Kazuo Ohno, and lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh; Practicing Frank creates durational work that blends live art task-based approach, and the deep listening Butoh body which together invite the viewer to come back home to the present moment and the body.
Developing an interdisciplinary approach, they have learnt under: Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, Norihito Ishii of Sankai Juku, Ken Mai, Vangeline, Marina Abramović, Martin O-Brien and Daniel Oliver among others; alongside extensive formal meditation in the Therevadā Buddhist Thai Forest Tradition. Their line of enquiry into the body and beyond continues to be walked back and forth, with the sensibility of practice makes practice.
Practicing Frank’s performance work has been featured in the Marina Abramović retrospective in the Royal Academy of Art in London , Royal Albert Hall, London Decompression, L’age D’or surrealist art salon; as well as local galleries and events across London, Berlin, Florence and Agropoli. Currently they are the artist in residence for the Art of Darkness collective.
MIM KING
Mim (Miriam King) is an Artist/Choreographer/Dancer/Live Artist/Filmmaker/Movement Director, or simply - a Visual Artist working with Movement and Perception, born in London, living in Brighton, working internationally.
Her professional performance career commenced in 1984. Moving from circus, to visual theatre through to dance, and to live art and film, her most significant training was with Anton Adasinsky & his performance company DEREVO at their former studio in Leningrad, USSR in 1990. Miriam's work is influenced by Butoh dance. Her main teacher was Masaki Iwana. She has been creating her own unique performances since 1992, taking her to dance, theatre and live art festivals and artist-in-residences around the World. She has researched, lectured and presented work in many countries including France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Iceland, USA, South Korea, China, New Zealand and Australia. Her award winning dance film work has been shown at Lincoln Centre/ New York, Pompidou Centre/Paris, ICA/London, the Venice Biennial and at the Sydney Opera House. Miriam has a continuing performance relationship with Gallery GH, Kostelec nad Cernymi Lesy, nr Prague, Czech Republic which commenced in 1992 and an ongoing performance relationship with SoToDo Gallery, Berlin & the Congress of Visual and Performance Art.
Mim has been on the editorial panel for Total Theatre Magazine, regularly contributing articles and reviews. She was a founder member of Movement 12 and also BUTOH Brighton. She is a visiting lecturer teaching Performance, Movement and Choreography. Currently head of Movement at Academy of Creative Training, Brighton. Regularly runs workshops at The Cockpit Theatre, London. Has lectured, lead tours and given workshops on art for The Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Tate Modern and Tate Britain.
SARAH WHITE
Sarah (she/her) is a contemporary dance artist based along the south coast of England. Her work spans performance and collaboration, including projects with Luke Brown Company (Walk of the Dandelion), Amy Morvell (The Difference A Year Makes) and Downtown Pompey (Sticky Floors and Palm Trees).
During her time with the Nuova X programme in Italy, she worked with choreographers Ella Rothschild and Astrid Boons , continuing to develop her artistic voice through international practice. Sarah teaches all ages from 3 year olds to professional adult classes here in Brighton and loves to create classes that delve into musicality and individuality of each dancer in the space.
Find out more on IG @sarah_whitedance
REID
Serving you haunting Alt-Folk with an emphasis on courage, REID is a creative multi-hyphenate - a sensual cyclone of ethereal melody, story and spoken word.
They have performed in the West End, screened at SXSW, been named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow and collaborated with icons like Sting, Eddi Reader, Mike Feist and Florence Welch.
Look up ‘LONE WOLF by REID’ on Bandcamp and you will find their debut album.
Find out more on IG @reid_itandweep
HILDEBRAND
Hailing from the rolling downs of East Sussex, Hildebrand spins soaring vocals and guttural lyricism into vivid landscapes of grief, longing and remedial joy.
An incurable multi-disciplinarian, their performance work holds roots in circus, cabaret and folk music and is infused with collaborations and mentorship from Diz Undone, Reid and Anya Pailthorpe. A mother, healer and lover of land and body, their music portrays the feral dance of healing through shadow, shame and unbridled bliss.
Find out more on IG @phoenixintheswamp
SKY COOK
is a freelance contemporary dance artist. She graduated Rambert School in 2025 with a BA in Ballet and Contemporary Dance and since has been navigating her practice and finding what movement means to her beyond training . Movement has always been a creative ritual to Sky , as a way to connect with different parts of herself that can only be found through dance. Sky just loves to move which manifests itself into learning many new movement disciplines. She is a newly qualified level 3 mat pilates teacher and enjoys gymnastics, cuban salsa classes, locking and grooving at raves .
At Rambert School, she worked with artists such as Akram Kahn Company , Miguel Altunaga, Jordan James Bridge, Ballet Boyz and Dresden Frankfurt Company which all sparked Sky’s curiosity into how kinaesthesia evokes audience empathy . Within this year of graduating, Sky has been working with Kin Dance Company on many projects and exhibitions including a new collaboration work named ‘ While We Gather’. As well as collaborating with visual artists , costume designers and photographers for various projects. She has been growing her choreographic portfolio too by creating a new duet work called ‘Withdrawn on Paper’ which premiered at South East Dance’s hatch night and joining as assistant choreographer with Lucy Brooks for Logic 1000’s and Christine and the Queens ‘ The Only One’.
Find out more on IG @skycookk
SHIRLEY ARCHIBALD
Multi-disciplinary artist Shirley Archibald works across sculpture, installation & performance examining the persecution of witches, the creation of the hag myth - crone, outsider - as a site of resistance and reclamation. She completed an MA Fine Art (Distinction) at the University of Brighton. Recent residencies include Common Ground (RuptureXIBIT, London, May 2025), Phoenix Winter Residency (Phoenix Art Space, Jan-Feb 2024). Notable exhibitions and performances include performing at The Royal Pavilion & Adelaide Salon Art Gala and Brighton Dome Founders Room (May 2026) Battleaxe (Unit 2, St Leonards, Oct 2025) Collapse (Observer Building, Hastings, Sept 2024) Bermondsey Project Space (July 2023) & Brighton CCA (Dec 2022). Shirley will be exhibiting at Bond Street Galleries, Brighton in October 2026 and has recently received Arts council funding for her ‘Earth Capsule’ project from November 2026-2027.
‘Haggess’ examines histories of persecution, erasure and resistance through the mythology of the hag and the loss of pagan practices. She explores how place carries memory and how ritualised actions of power can activate suppressed memories and healing. Collaborating with the Palette Collection, themes of impermanence present themselves through loss, longing and ancestral resonance.
TABITHA & THE SIREN COLLECTIVE
Tabitha is a multifaceted creative that explores art in forms of dance, acting and poetry. Originally trained in musical theatre, they have since gravitated towards more personal and expressive forms of artistic practice. Tabitha’s dance work involves choreographing and performing in styles such as hip hop, commercial, contemporary and sensual styles.
Tabitha founded The Siren Collective to share their approach to dance as a tool for reconnecting with the body, build community and gain a deeper sense of self. Through the collective, they continue to create and perform at events across Brighton and local areas.
Find out more on IG @tabitharead__ @the_siren_collective_dance
ALICE
My practice sits somewhere between drag, clownery, club kid culture and fire performance. I like making playful, high-energy performances that bring danger and silliness together. I perform at festivals, clubs and events, and really enjoy connecting with an audience. I like playing with the contrast between the danger of fire and a light-hearted, childlike energy. I love dressing up, creating characters and playing with exaggerated looks. Bringing all these elements together to create a colourful and strange moment in time.
Find out more on IG @theelectriclizard @nowthatswhaticallnudal @groovynudal
BEAU HURLEY
Beau is a multidisciplinary performer with a passion for storytelling through dance, song, and physical theatre. Having recently graduated with a degree in Contemporary Musical Theatre, she is embarking on her professional career, exploring the ways her practice can adapt and evolve across different artistic disciplines. Beau is passionate about choreography, collaboration, and writing, and has a particular interest in the relationship between physical training and performance, exploring how gym-based training can be tailored to support the unique demands of performers.
Find out more on IG: @hurley.beau
