JMS is a curator, artist and creative producer. Underpinning these entangled practices is an understanding of art as an embodied encounter between self and other, place and mystery. Joseph’s work explores performance / art as a contemporary modality of ritual, an / other way of experiencing and inhabiting body / space / time, as a technology of processing / mourning / desiring / communing / dreaming.
Expressions of this belief / research have emerged as performances, films and texts, as curatorial and producing projects, as collaborative contexts, talks and workshops.
Much of their / his independent work is held by Future Ritual, a long term curatorial, research and organising practice initiated in 2017. Since 2024, Joseph has worked as Curator, Public Practice at Tate.
Previous roles have included those at Live Art Development Agency, The Place and ]performance s p a c e[. JMS is also co-founder and co-director of VSSL studio.
Across all this work, Joseph remains committed to the live and embodied practices which welcome complexity, senstivity, tension and difficulty, and which call towards the more raw edges of experience.
joseph@futureritual.co.uk
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Marilyn Arsem, Voices, Ceremony [I], Future Ritual, 2024. Photo by Fenia Kotsopoulou.
CEREMONY
Produced by Future Ritual in partnership with Live Art Development Agency, Queen Mary University of London, Stanley Arts, Venice International Performance Art Week and VSSL studio.
Funded by Arts Council England and Mayor of London.
• curation • Future Ritual • 2024 • 2025 •
CEREMONY was a year-long programme cycle exploring performance as a modality for gathering, ritual and processing amidst the fragmentation of contemporary life. The programme was curated and produced by Future Ritual. The programme involved:
CEREMONY [I], a day of durational performances by Marilyn Arsem, Devika Bilimoria, Helena Goldwater and Sandra Johnston in a pair of dilapidated terrace houses in South East London (Safehouse, Peckham)
CEREMONY [II], a programme of works by Anne Bean, emilyn claid, SERAFINE1369 and Future Ritual (Ash McNaughton, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Marcel Sparmann) presented at Venie International Performance Art Week 2024
CEREMONY, a seven day programme of performances by Alastair MacLennan, Anne Bean, emilyn claid, gustaf broms (SE), kane stonestreet, Liz Rosenfeld (DE), Marilyn Arsem (US), n:u, Pianka Pärna, Raisa Kabir, Rubiane Maia, SERAFINE1369 and VestAndPage (DE/IT) with Ash McNaughton and Joseph Morgan Schofield (Copeland Gallery, Peckham), with further conversations and screenings at Live Art Development Agency and Queen Mary University of London
Whistling as the Night Calls, an exhibition of collaborative photography by Martin O’Brien and zack mennell (VSSL Studio, Deptford)
two day artist labs: Autobituaries by Anne Bean, Dig Me a Grave by Claye Bowler (VSSL Studio) and Constructing Phenomena [I] by Ron Athey (Battersea Arts Centre)
five day intensive workshops - Constructing Phenomena [II] by Ron Athey and Michele Occelli (Battersea Arts Centre), Considering Time and On Practice by Marilyn Arsem (Stanley Arts) and Arcane Portals by VestAndPage (Copeland Gallery)
> Future Ritual: CEREMONY
Sandra Johnston, Agape / Ajar, Ceremony [I], Future Ritual, 2024. Photo by Fenia Kotsopoulou.
Helena Goldwater, safe keeping. CEREMONY [I], Future Ritual. Photos by Fenia Kotsopoulou.
Alastair MacLennan, I N PAEAN, Future Ritual: CEREMONY, 2025. Photos by Fenia Kotsopoulou.
practices: curation / film / performance / writing
contexts: Future Ritual / Tate / VSSL studio / ]ps[
years: 2016 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 /