Interrupting Solitude – My last weekly blog for the Zero Hour Residency
Time always amazes me, the way in which it can fluctuate. We have an abundance one moment and none the next. I think the act of interrupting solitude brought on by the pandemic has compelled the time to fly. Wendy and I have had long days of protracted conversations followed by intense days of making over the past four weeks and yet the month seems to have vanished. I suppose this is a good analogy for our residency; Searching for closeness while separated by over 1036km; Finding intimacy whilst in isolation; Time feeling abundant and scarce at the same moment.
Life in a pandemic seems to change rapidly, shifting between different states; Fear, isolation and hopelessness quickly give way to friendship, comradery and exploration. Through the Zero Hour Residency, we have found a way to interrupt solitude and find closeness from a distance.
If you have followed this blog from the start you will know that we have been using absurdity as a way to explore the intimacy of touch whilst living in different countries, the UK and Germany. We have approached this task with an absurd spirit and the understanding that ‘touch’ can mean different things. In my last blog ‘Intimacy in Isolation’, I commented on what touch meant for us and what it means to make work about intimacy in a digital space. From that blog, I have really started to explore the reason why I want to use hands within this project.
Hands are the primary focus of touch sensitivity
Hands are what we use the most to touch our surroundings, ourselves and others. In some ways, we explore our sensory world and our emotional world through them. Hands are a symbol of friendship, collaboration and peace; they are a way to extend ourself out into the world acting as a public signifier of our private relationships.
By making video and video responses to choreographed gestures we found a visual language to explore our relationship. By mirroring the ‘hand choreography’ we could mirror ourselves and create a common space for collaboration. Our mirroring is significant to our collaboration; through it, we are establishing our openness to one another and from that, we can build a space in which to speak openly.
The virtual gallery came out of the desire for a space in which to immerse ourselves and feel as if we had a space in which to show the works. This seems like an obvious extension of the digital studio, but it hadn’t actually occurred to us to show work in this way. The final result of the residency is an interactive online gallery showcasing our favourite pieces made during the residency.
Our exhibition will be launched in late August by We Belong Here and will be shown along with other artists on the Zero Hour Residency. More information will be coming soon.
Wendy and I have been interviewed by We Belong Here, follow to link to watch the video.