COV(ID) RESIDENCY

Project team

George Saxon

Collaborators

Ryan Sehmar

Partner

Vivid Projects

Duration

31 October 2021-25 April 2021

Project overview

Under the moniker of SPECT.ANON. George Saxon and Ryan Sehmar worked with Vivid Projects as part of a year-long residency to re-imagine worlds under curfew during a shared self-isolation. A series of events, referred to as interludes and intervals, were developed within the environment of an empty space. The audience was beckoned into a wooden structure, where potential action and intervention were recorded at given intervals, as the artists deciphered the interior world (inner space) of this existence together with the fragile tensions and antagonisms presented by the exterior world (outer space).

This residency re-examined an archive of personal practice alongside manifestations of responses to this time of COVID-19. It considered how these archive materials intersect and interact alongside manifestations of responses to life during the global pandemic: the interludes and intervals.

1. The interludes (as a temporal diversion of that which was and that which will follow): is the space for ideas to come and go as transitional performances and frozen images, to be developed over the time of this residency. Each interlude begins as a transitional moment for us to catch our breath, recalibrate and readjust in this dislocated social space of the everyday.
2. The Intervals: explore the intervening period of elapsed archival time and retrieval during this pause. It is the gap and the pause between action and rest. It is a shift in pitch, as a space for new characters, actions and soundscapes to emerge and momentarily exist.

Filmed versions of Spect.Anon.'s streamed performances can be viewed on Vimeo.

• Spect.Anon. Vimeo Channel: Spect.Anon. on Vimeo
• Shadow of Love in a Post-Intimate Space - 28 February 2021
• Souls With Symbols - 31 October 2020