Erin Sexton: Contingency Planning
Published
Erin Sexton will be in residence at BEK September 2nd – 15th with her project Contingency Planning in collaboration with dance artist Yohei Hamada. Formatted as a 2-day workshop September 10th and 12th and exhibition/happening event September 13th, this is an open-structure exploration of sci-fi strategies, collective movement, and metaphysical sculpture.
See documentation from the Work Residency here.
‘Contingency planning’ is the act of imagining possible future events, often catastrophic, and figuring out ways to handle them. ‘Contingency’ is also a term in contemporary philosophy that refers to a state of change and uncertainty, where the foundation of reality is in constant flux, and absolutely anything is possible.
Sexton is interested in subverting mainstream apocalyptic narratives and finding ways of coping with / seeing beyond the death-throes of capitalism. She has created a series of wearable / occupiable sculptures from parachute cord, tarpaulin, knots, and netting that she considers as metaphysical technologies, hybrid tools for basic survival and hyperdimensional experience: Harnesses that grant us new abilities and protect us from harm, doubling as gentle restraints for scepticism. Colourful globular nets to contain, amplify, focus, or deflect energy as needed. Shelters within shelters, topological forms that resonate across manifold dimensions.
WORKSHOP
In their 2-day workshop, Sexton and Hamada will lead discussions, strategy sessions, energy experiments, and simple movement exercises with the sculptures. Focus will be on the development of extra-sensory perception and other skills such as knot tying and space-time folding. A sci-fi soundscape will be provided by live radio noise and ionospheric transmissions. The structure of activities will be flexible and respond to the needs and interests of the participants, with different spaces and methods provided for individual and collective exploration.
The workshop will take place on Tuesday 10.09 and Thursday 12.09 from 18:00 – 21:00 on both days. Spaces are limited and participants should attend both sessions. No previous experience is necessary and diverse perspectives are welcomed, however an open mind is required. To register, please send an email to: contact@erinsexton.com
EXHIBITION
Join us on Bergen Kulturnatt, Friday 13.09 from 18:00 – 00:00, for a public exhibition / happening event where everyone is invited to hang out, relax, have a drink, meet the artists, and try out the artworks if they so choose. Spontaneous performances might occur, and this will very likely turn into some kind of hyperdimensional dance party.
The project is made possible with the support of Bergen Kommune, Kulturrådet, and BEK.
About Erin Sexton
Erin Sexton (b. 1982) is a Canadian artist based in the forest near Oslo, Norway. Her sculptures and installations involve found objects, tarpaulin, tape, traditional rope work (knots, splices, netting), textiles, and crystallization processes. A sci-fi survivalist narrative runs through her work, exploring alternate paradigms, strange topologies, soft apocalyptics, and speculative cosmologies. She is a licensed amateur radio operator (LB9OH/VE2SXN), using ionospheric transmission for collective ritual and expanded forms of communication. Cross-disciplinary collaboration is central to her practice, which often results in conferences, workshops, and publications.
About Yohei Hamada
Yohei Hamada (b. 1987) is a Japanese dance artist and movement researcher based in Bergen, Norway. He develops choreographies concerning time, space, and perception, exploring tensegrity models and evolutionary principles. His research focuses on movement structure, involving collaborators from many different subject fields, using references to embryology, physics, architecture, martial arts and various dance methods.