performance
A performance collaboration by conceived and performed by
Jeungah Kim, Jan Kordylewski, Arianna Orland, Lian Sifuentes and Leah Wechsler
Directed by Lian Sifuentes
December 7, 2004
Cantor Film Center, New York University
Four performers dressed in black select a ball of yarn from a box on stage. Leaving a fifth performer onstage, the performers slowly walk out into the audience and present a ball of yarn to each audience member, carefully making solid eye contact. The performer then takes the loose end of the ball back to the stage and gives the end to the fifth performer. The yarn is handed out until every audience member is holding a ball connected to the figure on stage. In a final gesture of connectivity, the figure on stage entwines themselves and the other four performers into the network.
ARTIST STATMENT:
This project was an exploration of connectivity -- how people move from solitude to connectedness, how people enter into social contracts with one another, how people use invitations to include or entice each other.
We chose to embody and perform a physical network as a time-based conceptual art piece. This Network performance builds connections between its audience participants and performers through physicality, visualization and tactility. Each participant is given a thread that leads to the heart of the network. This physical network is made strong by eye contact and is made visual by the actual tactile threads that connect each person present and participating within the piece. This piece also acts as a response to the high-tech, efficient nature of social software by performing no-tech, inefficient methods of connection. And it is this rare moment of a single connection that we are excited to explore. We make eye-to-eye contact, we touch one another, we feel the tensions of our connections, and these occur slowly, on a one-to-one basis.
We are in a moment of social possibility where we forge countless connections and new relationships. From here we each make the choice to strengthen or let drop the threads that hold us all together.
