Photograph by Jonathan Vanderweit

Approaching Proximity

March 26 - May 8, 2016
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
Durational performance series presented on April 2 & 17 from 11:30a-3:30p.
Video and drawings used in our performative research were on display through the duration of the exhibition.

Directed/Choreographed with Tamin Totzke
Performances created with collaborators: Grant Bowen, Jeff Huston, Mary Margaret Moore, Kt Shores + Aaron Swartzman.

approaching proximity was a site specific performance series created for the exhibition Six Weeks, in Time, at the Henry Art Gallery. approaching proximity challenged contemporary notions of productivity by prioritizing human connection. Building upon our research of motion studies experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth’s elemental gestures of efficiency and inefficiency, we transformed repetitive object-oriented gestures into human-to-human relationships. Collectively we dissected solo pedestrian acts -- putting on and taking off a jacket, tying shoes, checking a smart phone -- reassembling the elements to reveal the qualities of human connection, support and care formed through both distance and proximity. In addition to the two live performances, video and drawings used during our performative research were on display in the gallery throughout the duration of the exhibition. (Performance images above, installation images below)

More about Six Weeks, in Time : In this exhibition, artists working across the time-based arts—from live performance to performative sculpture—present work that explores time as a fluid material. Rather than understanding time as a definitive quantitative system regulated by standardized clocks, this six-week exhibition considers different affective qualities of being within and structuring the flow of time.

And to learn about approaching proximity in relation to our broader Study of Time and Motion project read this generous and critical reflection by Elissa Favero: Stepping, In Time published on the online art journal "Critical Read".