Score for A Long Dramatic Pause
12 silkscreen prints on gabardine fabric with accompanying performance script
36 x 60 cm each
2025
This series of silkscreened graphic scores are designed to guide the choreography of A Long Dramatic Pause, a live performance that explores strategies of resistance against ultranationalism and far-right politics. Each time the performance is staged in a new context, I use these graphic scores as the foundation of a collaborative process with a new solo performer. Through a series of rehearsals, we discuss and interpret the scores together; come to shared decisions on movement, style and rhythm through negotiation; and ultimately co-develop a site-specific choreography for that particular iteration of the performance.
The graphic scores are accompanied by a written script, which comprises twelve chapters to be delivered verbally by the performer. Each design in the series of scores corresponds to one of these chapters, and features a prompt to inspire the performer's delivery (e.g. galvanize, passively resist, bend the rules). Together, these provide the conceptual and narrative parameters of the work, while highlighting the performer's agency and contribution as a co-creator.
As standalone artworks within the context of exhibitions, the silkscreen prints extend the essence of the performance beyond the staged event, existing both as traces of previous interpretations and propositions for future ones.
Produced with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
Installation views: BüroSarıgedik, Istanbul, 2025. Photos by Kayhan Kaygusuz.
