Forms of Restraint will manifest both as a static installation—composed of paintings, photographs and sculptures—and as an immersive work of live performance, in which the sculptures double as restraining devices. Aesthetically, the work will synthesize two tendencies: the sense of cool ambivalence exacerbated by the technology of classical lines and minimalist forms in minimalist space; and the heat of the sex-danger phantasm that haunts the live performance scenes and images. More philosophically, it will engage topics such as time, the relationship between dance and visual art, gender and sexuality, partnering, representation and self-identification and the mechanics of the gaze.

The ensemble performance focuses on Rope bondage and elements of the slow-moving dance technique known as Butoh. These forms will be intertwined and further merged with visual art, music, and dramaturgy. As a whole, the performance will function as a research laboratory for exploring these practices’ possibilities of cross-pollination and the opening of questions around entangled identities. Furthermore, it will establish a field in which to raise questions, challenge established binaries (such as dominance and submission), subvert normative expectations, and explore issues of agency, consent, and the fluidity of identity.

The creators are interested in two modes of presentation for this work: 1) within an event structure that includes performance dates and times; 2) as emergent from within the unmediated temporality of an exhibition