THE MIRROR POOL (from LONE DUETS)
Live performance
Material
1-4 hour participatory performance with red wine.
The Mirror Pool is an intimate transference rippling in the hands of the audience. It is a place of ‘becoming’ without destination.
As polished surfaces seep and reflect and the grotto overspills, the act of exchange becomes a warm and unstable encounter. It is a slippery place at the boundaries of skin, and a commitment to placelessness that is not quite sealed with a kiss.
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
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, UK (2009)
The Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2007)
Photo credits: Sian Stammers