Commissioned for UNWILLING: Exercises in Melancholy
March 23-April 27, 2018
Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College

Curated by: Vanessa Kwan and Kimberly Phillips

The Score
You:

Source from your memory an image of resistance, whether iconic or widely shared, personal or perceived.

Do not perform the gesture itself. Perform the transitions into or out of the gesture. Imagine the transitions without movement. Arrive in the gesture with your whole body at once.

Let the breath determine the rhythm of the sequence of gestures. Never complete an inhale or an exhale. Keep the breath continuous. Slow or interrupt the breath — do not arrest or stop breathing. Do not predetermine the length of each breath. Allow this rhythm to be erratic /changeable.

Attempt for each gesture to be framed within a standing body with the hands incrementally moving upwards, but never arriving symmetrically above your head.

Count each gesture — audible or not.

Work on being illegible.

 

I:

Perform 100 gestures in 100 different locations in one day.

Use my whole body as an imperfect recording device, record one gesture during the performance at each of the 100 locations.

Hold this gesture in my body. Memorize the feeling.

Use the recorded gestures to map a route between locations.

Perform the 100 recorded gestures one time in one location.

Perform the felt gesture map at the entrance of the location.

Let my breath determine the rhythm of the sequence of gestures. Never complete an inhale or an exhale. Keep my breath continuous. Slow or interrupt the breath — do not arrest or stop breathing. Do not predetermine the length of each breath. Allow this rhythm to be erratic /changeable.

Count each gesture — audible or not.

Work on being illegible.

 

 

Photographs by Ryan M. Collerd