(im)possible performances: an introduction▲▼▲
Impossibility is a sliding scale▲ somedays it feels impossible to get out of bed▼ On others we are pleasantly surprised to reach beyond our own expectations (let alone what others expect of us)▲ Wether that is finding the energy to lift a corner of curtain to peek up at a tiny patch of sky▼ or scaling a peak to gaze down upon the clouds▲
Each of the 16 artists/ writers invited to take part in the project have leant into▼ or away from▲ the idea of impossibility in a different way; they have used different mediums to share experiences▼ and have▲ of course▼ needed to rely on what is possible and practical in order to realise their works▲ The Covid-19 pandemic made sharing live performance art practices a physical impossibility▼ but these works transcend the immediate impossibilities of living in a global pandemic▲ They explore the layers upon layers of everyday impossibilities that we still encounter and will remain present▼ once we ‘return to normal’▲
‘Gesture signals a refusal of a certain kind of finitude’ José Esteban Muñoz▼ Cruising Utopia▲
The purpose (if there is to be one at all) to these works is not to define▼ nor to replace the experience of live performance work▲ nor do they function as documentation▼ They aim to be another method for communicating experiences as ephemera▲ as gestures▼ as an exploration of materials and of the erotic ('A measure between our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings'▲ Audre Lorde▼ Your Silence Will Not Protect You)▲
This project came from a simple▼ yet impossible▲ desire; the desire to share experiences when it felt impossible to do so▼ and then (for me at least) grew into the realisation that it always feels impossible to do so▲ because there is no language to describe the multifarious experiences of the body especially when those bodies are othered▼
Helen Davison, 15 March 2021
