Luke Pell makes work in and in between spaces of dance, theatre and live art. Fascinated by detail, nuances of time, texture, memory and landscape, he creates intimate encounters, poetic objects and environments that attend to notions of alterity, periphery and community. Luke has undertaken several residencies at Cove Park, his most recent in 2016. His current project In the Ink Dark is taking place in Edinburgh and Leith during May and June 2017.
‘Over the past three years Cove Park has become a core part of my practice as an artist. It is a space, a place and a community in which I continue to be surprised, charged and enriched. Whether that is through dedicated residencies, micro-labs or periods of research time with peers, all of these encounters have afforded me space to retreat, reflect, go to ground, emerge and generate new thinking and directions in my practice. I have met and worked alongside remarkable constellations of people – by choice and by design – that as time goes on I note the significance of their influence – in quiet, subtle and radical ways – upon my work and my world.
I first came to Cove in May 2014 through a Fuel Theatre and Jerwood residency. This was my first taste of Cove and it took me time to surrender to what I now refer to as being ‘Coved’, to allow the landscape in, to open up to chance, to tangent, the unplanned and unexpected. I was so focussed on making the best use of precious time out of from my day-to-day in that first week, that – for a while – I was missing the abundance all around me.
Important ad hoc, informal conversations during that time with Roanne Dods, Ruth Little, Julian Forrester, Alexia Holt, Lauren Gault and Emmie McLuskey have shifted what I do and the way I do it immeasurably. I remember Emmie saying to me you’ll be mining what you find here for years and that was so, so true.
In the last two days of that first week, what came out of the blue of that great wide vista, from the shadowed green, grey and mauve of cloud and mist and forest, drawing down the mountainside, spilled in light across Loch Long, seeded projects that now five years on are coming now into their full being.
The first In the Ink Dark, is dreamt as a living poem, it is a wander along the water, a seat beside someone on a bench, a conversation, 
a landscape of words written with bodies,
a space for you to reflect, remember, imagine, in honour of things loved and lost.
Created with a range of interdisciplinary collaborators it takes inspiration from a series of conversational encounters and will culminate in a live dance performance and publication and is accompanied by a series of podcasts.
In the Ink Dark collects and explores  experiences of loss and landscape, memory and materiality through dance, design and poetry.
I’m currently in the studio working with an eclectic ensemble of dance and performance artists on an hour-long action, scores of continuous movement that will be performed as part of the project in Edinburgh and Leith from 16-23 June. You can also find out more about the project, where to come for conversation or listen to at intheinkdark.com We’d love to see you there.’
Luke Pell, June 2017
In the Ink Dark – Performances
Luke Pell and collaborators
McDonald Road Library, 2 McDonald Road, EH7 4LU
Monday 19 June 6.30pm
FREE but ticketed
Tickets: Tickets McDonald Road
Botanic Cottage, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Arboretum Place, EH3 5NZ
Wednesday 21 June 11.00am & 3.00pm
FREE but ticketed
Tickets: Tickets Botanic Cottage
Central Library, 11 George IV Bridge, EH1 1EG
Thursday 22 June 7.00pm
FREE but ticketed
Tickets: Tickets Central
Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close EH8 8DT
Friday 23 June 7.30pm
FREE but ticketed
Tickets: Tickets Scottish Poetry Library