This project started in reaction to current dilemmas of social isolation and the economy of physical touch.
A hug is a greeting; a beginning to a conversation. A hug is a remedy to aloneness; a gesture of affection. What I am asking is, what is life without this basic act of kindness? This isn’t a hypothetical question. This is the question a lot of us are asking ourselves right now.
I wanted to simulate a safe hug during this COVID pandemic. Just like any project, the ideas developed and changed along the way.
This project investigates what stands between us; the barriers that we must maintain in order to stay safe from a seemingly invisible threat. We move throughout the world with little knowledge of each others expressions or even what strangers look like. We are covered to keep ourselves safe but this means we have to conceal our emotions, our bodies, and most identifying features from each other. We must keep each other at a distance. How can we connect despite all of this?
I went about imagining a place where two people would meet and hug. I thought of a simple screen set up between two trees with holes for arms to reach through. I set about creating sculptural garments for these people to wear.
These sculptures were constructed from rain coats worn backwards, with the hood over the face. A clear vinyl circle forms a periscope for the performer to see through. Cotton, fleece and plastic strips were pleated together to create textural region that reveals the stomach and chest. The back opening of the garments are draped with layers of painted plastic sheets. Many of these elements were hand sewn together.
Here is a link to the process behind creating these pieces: https://blogs.massart.edu/cmarcantonioblr/category/studio-projects/
When creating these garments I thought about the happiness, richness of desire that would bring people together. (But also fear and sadness the grows from knowing why we’ve been kept apart.) I thought about a pool of fabric pressed up against a plastic wall, or the scrunching of sleeves pushed up above the elbows. I thought about a bright aura of colors floating behind someone.
Next I set about creating a performance, choosing a site and enlisting the help of two performers. The two performers, Becca Ford and Toby Evett are close childhood friends who dance, act and do work with the body. We met remotely and discussed some image building and scenes we’d like to try. I think they both bring great presence, a willingness to play and to discover in the moment.
I chose a site that I had spent some time at as a kid, a local conservation area, the Sarah Doublet Forest. I had always known it to be Native American land, but never knew the history along with it.
This projects does not engage with that history directly but it would be remiss if I did not talk about it. Sarah Doublet was the last surviving person of the Nashobah tribe after internment at Deer Island in 1677. Firstly as human beings and secondly as artists Becca, Toby and I discussed how we felt about working there. We spoke broadly about racial disparities and inequality of whose story makes into the history books. We took a moment to observe the monument at the site and reflect.
We gathered together, they donned the sculpted garments, and I began to capture their interaction. What I’ve discovered through this project is a stronger sense of practice. I use a manual camera to capture these moments because it slows down the image building. The performer is forced to pause. They are given an auditory cue when the photo is taken. I, too get some satisfaction out of the sound of shutter clicking in its frame, and the film winding as I pull the advance lever.
These are small performances, meditations that try and result in a deliverable object: the photo. But there is something else that happens along the way. The being somewhere, with somebody.
Future work I’d like to undertake more planning, maybe involving moving image. I have 30 seconds of just unedited dancing with Toby and Becca. I’d like to use some of the technology I’ve learned in my animation class to use with this clip. I’d like to work with sound artists and learn how to collaborate there. I’d like to think more about my audience—just who they are, how they come to the work. Maybe with more planning I could invite people to interact with the project. I see this as a first iteration of the screen and the sculptured garments.