Alice Weber, during the two-week Research Residency at Critical Path in April, researched her ongoing project Dream Cellscapes. The residency then led into a three-week solo exhibition of the same name at Cement Fondu, in April and May, as part of the ‘Textbook for Desire’ program.
Dream Cellscapes is a choreographic practice that plays out in a spreadsheet and IRL. Performed by collaborators Ella Watson-Heath, Juliet Saito and Wendy Yu, with sound by Megan Alice Clune, the work was shared at the opening of her exhibition at Cement Fondu on 17th of April. The exhibition developed the work into video and installation format, as well as live performances. A durational version of Dream Cellscapes was performed at Cement Fondu on 1 May.
Alice worked on her project Dream Cellscapes at the Drill in July, collaborating with international artists Vanessa Goodman and Ileanna Cheladyn and explored the practice across different time zones and circadian rhythms. She also followed a new line of inquiry for her broader choreographic research into structures of desire and containment, taking the idea of rupture as a movement score. Where Cellscapes explored the overflow of desire from the container of a cell, this new inquiry looks at the idea of containment within timeframes and the moment of release, in both digital and embodied contexts.
Dream Cellscapes
Alice’s research takes shared digital spaces as the choreographic field. This work addresses the curation as a digital and online choreographic work-space; specifically the creation and embodiment of shared digital spaces.
Her research extends her embodied practice and deepen the existing questions that drive her practice. Essentially these are questions of desire: How does desire flow through, and overflow, sites of coding or containment?
“I work from the perspective that any encounter with the body is charged with desire and this becomes intelligible through specific codes.”
The research also raises questions of spectatorship: How do viewers engage with this practice? What is the specific performative conditions of being watched that makes this practice either compelling and or alienating? Who is it for?
Publication
In 2d form, Dream Cellscapes features reflections and visual remnants from the performance. Designed by Zoe Baumgartner, the book will feature contributions from collaborators and peripheral observers. Order your copy here.
Image credits: Image 1 by Alice Weber, images 2&3 by Alia Ardon, images 4,5&6 by Four Minutes to Midnight.