Our collective’s night-long process of labour will be a resonant meditation on tension between bodies, and the pulling together that happens through collective work. “Making” will become a force of its own, pulling us into our own materiality.
Backstrap looms rely on tension between the weaver and a stationary anchor point, traditionally a tree. In the case of our performance, we will instead use our own bodies to create tension in order to weave lengths of cloth. Working in pairs, the warp threads will be anchored around our waists. Beginning at a distance, bodies - in various configurations - will weave while continually adjusting in relation to the cloth. As we undulate closer and farther from one another, we conceal and reveal our cloth in progress. Our motions will oscillate between narrowing and expanding the space between one another.
Our every action will be amplified in surround sound to further immerse ourselves and our audience in the act of weaving, giving voice to the rhythm of weaving and each of the threads that make up our cloth. The cloth will be woven with light-reflective yarn, allowing threads and motions to ‘glow’ in the dark of the night.
Lead by Emma Worley, denirée isabel and Anita Cazzola (Soft Walls Collective)
Special Thanks
Laura Coelho
Elycia SFA
Jack Paltanen Camila Salcedo
Yahn Nemirovsky Akash Inbakumar
selina latour Shaya Ishaq
Mea Bissett nadira narine
Hatley Walker Madeline Bonk
Angela McIntosh Helen Liene Dreifelds
Daria Domnikova Eija Loponen-Stephenson
Naomi Daryn Boyd
Ruth Wickremesooriya
Rachel Ormshaw Yasmine Louis