A collection of five video essays on embodiment and social distancing, with a focus on performances. With social distancing, that range of environments is severely and suddenly restricted. What happens to my sense of self in these circumstances? How do I know who I am? What do I have to show the world and my self to confirm my sense of self?
This video essay contemplates the role that rest performs in my own creativity, connecting the labor movement, technology, and the radical act of restorative rest. About two months into stay-at-home orders here in the United States, I received some bad news.
Not life-threatening, but bad enough to add to the anxiety of what had by that time become the new normal in this pandemic. Immediately, I was compelled to take a nap. It was as if my brain, while dealing with a low-level of grief and overwhelm from this pandemic at large, needed a moment of reset when faced with a new emotional and psychic trauma.
With all the new stressors, and adjusted responsibilities in the new quarantine world, I do have to say one gift I have been given is a new surreal sleep schedule, accompanied by vibrant technicolor dreams. Touch is nearly as technicolor in these dreams as the visuals, electrifying, spine-tingling and the simple act of holding hands becomes an intimate act of trust. In rest, my body tells me what it needs and deeply desires.
Like in dance and gesture, the body extends to its apex and requires a retraction before beginning a new move. However, we globally find ourselves at a moment of maximum extension, with no built-in structure for retraction and reflection.
