From the original Festival website:

Sugar Sugar White: A sticky sweet sickly punch. Slow-mo. Loud. A hit. A dissolving. A deconstruction. A destruction. KABOOM. A sugar-caked lip sequence. A dirty-pure pose in white heels, white lace (Britney style). A disappearance. Now you see me, now you don’t. I’m over here. No. Now I’m over here. Can you see me? I’m stepping into and out of the White. Over here. Stepping into and out of the White. I’m getting my saw out. I’m going to carve this up.

White chalk, white board, white paper, white pants, white socks, white boxers, white collar, white lie, white gown, white suit, white wedding, white wine, white milk, white bread, white flour, white sugar, white ice, white snow, white space, white wall, white paint, white line, white wand, white witch, white light, white rabbit, white dove, white whale, white sea, white squall, white noise, white heat, white ash, white land, white hair, white hands, white skin, white flag…. white flag…. white flag…. KABOOM.

In 2006 Sheila Ghelani was commissioned by Chelsea Theatre to make White Squall; an investigation into ‘whiteness’ – as a colour, ‘idea’, cultural signifier, surface, veneer and ultimate symbol of horror. Sugar Sugar White revisits the territory again, asks the same questions, explores the same materials, walks the same ground… but does it louder, faster, stronger.  I’m getting my saw out, I’m going to carve this up.

My practice so far literally stems from my own experience of being mixed heritage and addresses ideas that emerge from notions of ‘mixing’ or being mixed. I attempt to engage playfully with words and ideas that I find difficult. I am interested in hybridity, – crossings, blood, skins, skinning, carefully controlled experiments, well-oiled machinery, colour, genetics, joining and love. My work often includes ‘live-ness’ or engagement with an audience, and usually employs materials and objects in unfamiliar ways (often leaving a carefully choreographed strategic mess behind). As an artist I actively seek to contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding race, terminology and its signifiers.

Sugar Sugar White is based on ideas first developed in White Squall, a piece of work produced and commissioned by Chelsea Theatre, London as part of their first Sacred Season.

sheilaghelani.co.uk