2020
In a time of global political uprisings, we have had to learn to self-isolate and maintain physical distance from one another. Faced with a global pandemic, we have had to re-imagine the ways that we gather, protest and how we achieve critical mass. The Left Space is a new digital commission for the AGO, that considers how we, the global left, have found ourselves in this predicament.
Developed and choreographed for webcam and the grid formation of Zoom, custom backdrops by graphic designer Jerome Harris and on-and-off camera sequences will intervene and aesthetically connect a team of dancers from Hit and Run Productions performing from their homes around the world, with a score by DJ Karsten Sollors. Reaching out and signalling to one another with the choreography and engaging with protest slogans incorporated into each’s changing background, the performers and audiences will question the potential for online platforms to re-create the social solidarity experienced in physical gatherings.
The backgrounds use historically significant patterns to tell stories of power, camouflage, and resistance. Evoking a sense of urgency and emergency, “dazzle” patterns, which were painted on war ships to intercept their target, are coupled with purple and magenta plaid, which at once symbolizes British colonial rule in Kenya, a warning to predators in the wild, and the flashing of police lights.
CREDITS
Originally commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Choreography in collaboration with Hit and Run Production.
Sound by DJ Karsten Sollors.
Graphic design in collaboration with Jerome Harris.
Dancers:
Benjamin Landsberg
Anisa Tejpar
Jennifer Nichols
Dedra McDermott
Robert Halley
Shawn Bracke