An investigation of the complex relationship of form and practice through the lens of the smallest multiple units of collaboration: the pair.
Drawing out the particularities of collaborative work, Entanglements of Two: A Series of Duets considers the duo as a microcosm of humankind. Focusing on a ten-year period in the work of collaborative performance maker Karen Christopher, the book explores the practical, philosophical, and aesthetic implications of performers working in pairs and offers wider reflections on the duet as a concept in artistic and social life. The twenty-five pieces in the collection-from an international group of collaborators, artists, and performance scholars, alongside writing from related disciplines, including linguistics, physics, poetry, and theology-offer critical reflections on artistic collaboration and entanglement and contemplate their significance on an interpersonal and global level. A foreword by writer and artist Season Butler rounds out this essential volume.
An investigation of the complex relationship of form and practice through the lens of the smallest multiple units of collaboration: the pair.
Drawing out the particularities of collaborative work, Entanglements of Two: A Series of Duets considers the duo as a microcosm of humankind. Focusing on a ten-year period in the work of collaborative performance maker Karen Christopher, the book explores the practical, philosophical, and aesthetic implications of performers working in pairs and offers wider reflections on the duet as a concept in artistic and social life. The twenty-five pieces in the collection-from an international group of collaborators, artists, and performance scholars, alongside writing from related disciplines, including linguistics, physics, poetry, and theology-offer critical reflections on artistic collaboration and entanglement and contemplate their significance on an interpersonal and global level. A foreword by writer and artist Season Butler rounds out this essential volume.
[1]
Opening gambit
Karen Christopher
[2]
Foreword
Season Butler
[3]
Haranczak/Navarre Performance Projects
Duet collaborations, 2010-21
[4]
Introductory fragment #1: the two of you
Karen Christopher
[5]
Between Two Somethings
J. R. Carpenter
[6]
Duet Walk
Karen Christopher & Mary Paterson
[7]
Resonance of Two
Karen Christopher
[8]
Six Practices of Learning Together in Havruta
Orit Kent
[9]
Introductory fragment #2: heart and lungs
Karen Christopher
[10]
Consider This (Control Signal)
Mary Paterson
[11]
Staying with the tremble
Eirini Kartsaki
[12]
What never stops?
Joe Kelleher
[13]
Invisible partners remain themselves inside
Litó Walkey
[14]
The Promise of More to Come (So Below)
Mary Paterson
[15]
On creating a climate of attention: the composition of our work
Karen Christopher & Sophie Grodin
[16]
Not so much balanced as balancing (miles & miles)
Mary Paterson
[17]
The collaborative artistic working process of Control
Signal:
A drama-linguistic exploration of the shifting of roles
Andrea Milde
[18]
Introductory fragment #3: tangled
Karen Christopher
[19]
Imagining Seven Falls
Mary Paterson
[20]
Introductory fragment #4: a lot of rope
Karen Christopher
[21]
Always On Uneven Ground
Rajni Shah
[22]
TwoFold: Questions
Mary Paterson
[23]
A Physics Duet
David Berman
[24]
Conclusion: I have been thinking of you this whole time
Mary Paterson
[25]
Diffractions: record of a passage
David Williams
[26]
Contributors’ biographies
[27]
Acknowledgments
Mary Paterson is an independent writer, researcher and curator. With Intellect she previously published Joshua Sofaer: Performance | Objects | Participation (2020), co-edited with Roberta Mock.
Karen Christopher is a collaborative performance maker, performer, and teacher. Her company, Haranczak/ Navarre Performance Projects, has been engaged in creating a series of duet performances. Karen was a member of the influential Chicago-based Goat Island performance group for 20 years.
'Entanglements of Two works, like much performance work, by slow
and considered associative thinking. Back and forth ideas go, page
and eye, words and reader, meaning and mind, reflecting upon ten
years of duet performances whilst also – as the back cover puts it
– ‘exploring the practical, philosophical, and aesthetic
implications of working in pairs and offer[ing] wider reflections
on the duet as a concept in artistic and social life’. [...] So far
I think this book is a call to action, a learning tool.'
*Rupert Loydell, Tears in the Fence*
‘This book provides a fascinating insight into the creative working
process of a particular artist, whilst providing a blueprint for
how collaboration might take place. There are many passages which
might provide inspiration for
other artists and overall the book makes a moving and heartfelt
plea for interpersonal open-ness and mutual investment.’
*Dr Sarah Gorman, Honorary Research Fellow, University of
Roehampton*
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