Polyrhythms (Fuerst Rendition), 2020 - 2022
Performance
Through walking, our rhythms influence the tangible and immaterial qualities of a space. Bodies respond to an environment—it’s architecture or geography, the living creatures—and over time our movement adds to the chorus of a space’s distinct pulse. Polyrhythms, or the simultaneous layering of multiple rhythms, occur. The simple act of walking alongside another being generates complex polyrhythms that change over a duration of time.
The act of walking is both exaggerated and flattened by the circle. Through its form, the circle invites us to commune with the cyclic nature of existence through meditative contemplation, relieved of linear structure. When the circle is a specified track without end, repetition allows for improvisation, opening possibilities of synchronicity, response, refusal, and a distorted perception of time.
The circle is also a training tool in working with livestock. With horses, it is a track on which two bodies navigate space as they communicate through minute shifts of weight, pressure, movement, and praise. The circular site of these constantly shifting relationships between humans and domesticated equines invites a physical suppleness between species.
In this durational walking performance, the artist and her equine collaborator Renn (Fuerst Rendition) generate an interspecies polyrhythmic choreography within the industrial-residential Cudell neighborhood of H Space Gallery.
Performance
Through walking, our rhythms influence the tangible and immaterial qualities of a space. Bodies respond to an environment—it’s architecture or geography, the living creatures—and over time our movement adds to the chorus of a space’s distinct pulse. Polyrhythms, or the simultaneous layering of multiple rhythms, occur. The simple act of walking alongside another being generates complex polyrhythms that change over a duration of time.
The act of walking is both exaggerated and flattened by the circle. Through its form, the circle invites us to commune with the cyclic nature of existence through meditative contemplation, relieved of linear structure. When the circle is a specified track without end, repetition allows for improvisation, opening possibilities of synchronicity, response, refusal, and a distorted perception of time.
The circle is also a training tool in working with livestock. With horses, it is a track on which two bodies navigate space as they communicate through minute shifts of weight, pressure, movement, and praise. The circular site of these constantly shifting relationships between humans and domesticated equines invites a physical suppleness between species.
In this durational walking performance, the artist and her equine collaborator Renn (Fuerst Rendition) generate an interspecies polyrhythmic choreography within the industrial-residential Cudell neighborhood of H Space Gallery.
Images by Marcus Branthwaite
Polyrhythms (Fuerst Rendition), 2022
The second iteration of this performance took place on February 11, 2022 at Hunter Oaks Equestrian Center in Carlock, IL