Movement Sketches // Collaboration with Suhaee Abro, 2020-2021

In the same period that I investigate my knowledge of silk through spinning practices, I initiate a movement practice in collaboration with Suhaee Abro, a performer and artist based in Lodi, Italy. From 30 Mar - 31 Dec 2020, we meet for 146 hours, recording each of our sessions on Skype.

The goal is to arrive in the body in a daily fashion, recording observations about what types of knowledge we can collect in this way, and how this form of inquiry shifts and shapes the questions we ask.

There is a lot to be gained from this type of daily arrival, we find. Though Suhaee and I have never met in person, we now share a knowledge of each other’s bodies. It is also simply time spent together as women, honouring the body and its sensations.

As we devote time to making shapes with the body, prizing abstraction, attention also turns towards internal, felt movements. The consequence for knowledge seeking is that the practice can be both visual and unseen. Insight too can be displayed or perhaps verbalised, but equally important, it can be felt. Locating these feelings becomes crucial. We learn this simple lesson over and over again.

Two things become important. One is the mirroring style of this female communion. The second is a growing insistence upon seeking knowledge in this way. This leads me to question my heavily rational epistemic foundations, rooted in masculinist, colonial traditions, and forms the impetus for my MA dissertation on knowledge.

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References

Chettur, Padmini. Varnam, 2016, Performance at Kochi Muziris Biennale. Video.

Coates, Marcus. Answers from other Worlds, 2013, Week-long workshop in Tower Hamlets, London. Video.

Lall, Ein (Director). Sharira – Chandralekha’s Explorations in Dance, 2003, Video.