On Movement, Thought and Politics

An ongoing collaborative project between taisha paggett and Ashley Hunt. Born from their attempts to merge and challenge their respective disciplines — which span dance, visual art, activism and teaching — they look to what these disciplines and daily, political life demand of the body and mind together, splitting us in two, and how they shape communities and the theories and possibilities that each offer. The results are works that seek to sit uncomfortably between visual art, dance, education and organizing, belonging faithfully to none but pushing against the boundaries between them.

The collaboration is animated by an interest in the body as a site of knowledge, of new capacities and emerging agencies. Following their first two collaborative investigations, Undeliverable 1the single channel video, Engagement (2004), and the installation and ‘zine, Undeliverable Address: 53 Questions that will not be answered by the White House (2005),

Hunt and Paggett shared a residency at BAK (Center for Contemporary Art) in Utrecht, where they developed a workshop of short pedagogical scores, micro-lectures and thought-movement exercises.

 

FOCA / MTandP 6This workshop is now the basis for continuing investigations, including the 2009 video and photographic installation, On Movement, Thought and Politics: Garment Worker Center, Los Angeles, produced through a series of workshops with members of the Los Angeles-based Garment Worker Center.

In this work, popular education materials that are used by the Garment Worker Center to teach workers how to make demands for their rights, working conditions, and claims for unpaid wages, were used as scores for three tableau vivants. Each time, two workers volunteered to direct, shaping their fellow workers into the postures and gestures that they understood the posters to suggest.

The most recent manifestations of the project are the project/exhibition, Par Course A, and Par Course B: Labor Questions, IMG_0239both of which draw upon the exercise stations that can be seen populating nature trails and parks, in order to create performative sculptures that enact movement-thought exercises. Par Course B was created in collaboration with members of the Hyde Park Art Center’s Youth Art Board. Additionally, an engagement with members of the community surrounding Project Row Houses, dealing with ways we feel safe in our communities, is reflected upon as a part of the And And And platform of Documenta 13.

Most recently, they’ve collaborated on Par Course C: Formations, Maneuvers, Drills (2013), made with members of the Veterans’ Resource Center at Cypress College, and [BLACKOUT] (2014).