I asked the audience to close one eye Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto
2016 Running with Concepts, Choreographic Edition
curated by Christine Shaw and Ame Henderson
I ask the audience to close one eye is a performative cartography, a coming-into-form of personal/ political latencies of love, genetic misgivings, and animate/inanimate relations. Using live performance tactics of proximity, framing, pausing and pacing, I introduce several items into the space that do not belong to each other immediately.
Performance excerpt:
I start by introducing the red jacket folded in front of me/ I announce it will be my friend O for the time being / I put on the jacket/ O’s partner is introduced to the audience / I hug them / They introduce their work / I ask the audience to close one eye / My father will start to dance a small dance / A pause / A 1943 photo of O’s great Uncle Beyrish is shown, and his story told / I scroll through the documents of a sperm donor / My father stands up, O’s partner stands up, and they are asked to shake hands.
Named in NOW MAgazine Favourites of Toronto Visual Arts scene in 2016