DERMOGRAPHIA (from LONE DUETS)
Live performance
Material
2-4 hour durational performance with pig carcass, aluminium structure, and fluorescent lights.
Exploring skin as a site of inscription and performative value, Dermographia juxtaposes the static body of the dancer with the carcass of a pig. The two bodies, representing the sacred and the profane, remain locked in an embrace between the living and the dead. As time passes, binary distinctions erode and the still life gives way to a trembling momento mori.
Between 2005 and 2008, Richard Hancock and Traci Kelly developed Lone Duets – a game of ‘performance chess’, a viral investigation into the form and nature of collaboration. Employing contamination and infection as dramaturgical devices, Hancock and Kelly cultivated a series of 6 solo performances, each made in response to the work of the other, each grappling for the space between.
The resulting works are a series of visceral, intimate, and queer events, both moving and spectacular: Richard Hancock Dermographia (2005), Traci Kelly In Season (2006), Richard Hancock Postures A-to-M (2006), Traci Kelly The Mirror Pool (2007), Richard Hancock Open Wound (2007), Traci Kelly Rupture (2008).
Lone Duets was presented for the first time in its entirety as part of a New Moves International commission for the National Review of Live Art (UK), in 2009.
Performed
Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, DE (2009)
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, UK (2009)
Tramway, Glasgow, UK (2007)
The Powerhouse, Nottingham, UK (2005)
Photo credits: Luke Warda