The complications of conversations and negotiations.
This was performed in the gallery/performance space in the bus center.
I made it in response to a number of different factors:
One was the presence of the large wooden table, strongly lit. It seemed to be a dining room table, slightly incongruous in that context, but clearly a kind of destination.
I had been thinking about negotiations, peace talks, the process of people reaching agreement, and the complications of conversations between people of different backgrounds.
The set up included long black gloves at each place. One was attached to a cord that went up to the ceiling to an eye-hook, and across to where I was sitting on a stool against the wall. I could control one hand of each person. The control was not complete – I could move the hand closer or further from another, but the articulation of the fingers was up to the person.
The other glove was not attached to a cord, but allowed the wearer free use of their hand. But oddly they became entirely passive with that other hand and didn’t use it, even though it wasn’t in my control…
There was also a blindfold at each place.
And I asked people to be silent.
People sat down and engaged with people adjacent and across from them, and when each left another person sat down. People also stood behind the chairs at the table and watched.
