STABLE CONNECTION, Part I: The Creature
Between Spring 2020 and Spring 2021, the height of NYC's first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Soleil hosted 53 Zoom calls with participants between the ages of 11 and 83.
The intention of Stable Connection: to experiment with physical interactions in the virtual space, to transform qualities of touch and action. Each call stabilized a reminder for the participant; in the context of the pandemic, interactions that used to be meaningless develop a new significance. As our bodies configured in the frame we intuitively created new physical forms. With each call, a new creature was formed. And with the creation of each creature, there was a feeling of connection and realization that transcended the screen and echoed the exhilaration of bumping into a friend in a crowd of strangers.
This paradox of borders was heightened by the mandate to isolate within designated areas—including our Zoom boxes. This technological mediation of our physical forms is at the root of Stable Connection.
On the calls, participants needed to be vulnerable and learned to challenge this newly natural, collective instinct: curate for the screen.
The creatures of these calls are another side of this screen-made reflection.
Stable Connection explores the experience of death and rebirth through the sense of touch.
Death: the pandemic’s contagion—touch was deemed deadly.
Rebirth: Virtuality catalyzing touch and vulnerability in previously unexperienced ways.
Laura Barnett
Russell Behr
Jeff Frankle
Jennifer Hickman
Jaques-Maxime Piverger
Jacques-Philippe Piverger
Patrick Ragen
Zoe Sachs
Desmond Saunders
Juno Wright
The Art & Theater Departments at Saint Ann's School
And thank you to all 53 participants