Slowly Moving With a Burden Bent
Slowly Moving with a Burden Bent, the artist walks, carries, and occasionally rests. A participatory performance, pausing urban time, welcomes dialogue and gestures that undo and reassemble repurposed fibers into a secondary, three dimensional poetic response.
Look for the burden of an exaggerated canvas backpack being carried, slowly. Look for the moments when the burden requires rest. Pause to listen for the fiber being torn then, tear some fiber. Stop to listen to the dialogue between strangers twisting and knotting fiber, then twist and knot. Select from the language held by 13 cross stitched pillows to anchor the ends of the chord. Add to the chorus of the participatory poem that is really a map, a tangle, a tactile infographic.
After resting, tearing and twisting, the artist packs up the tangle and moves on to another location or simply calls it a day.
THE SCORE
carrying then resting
tearing
twisting
attaching or anchoring
poetic translation
This score is an invitation, a conversational intermediary. Its intent and outcome changing with the location and the prepared material that is being carried, torn and twisted. Previous events used fiber claimed from old hospital scrubs, another gauze. I imagine the impact and tone shifting if the material was a wedding gown, old bed sheets or fondly worn t-shirts.
This work is traveled to NYC, October 18-20th, 2024. A part of Art in Odd Places. Artnet has reviewed the event, A Quirky Art Festival will be Unfolding in New York.