‘A Duet’ 

steel, graphite, paper

(2024)

‘A Duet’ plays with the relationship between a moving body and space. It is a proposal to consider the point of contact between a mover and the ground as the living spot/starting point from which a floorplan or spatial arrangement can grow. A floorplan which uses touch and the exchange of weight as tools of measurement to determine and make new 3-dimensional shapes in space.

To begin this project, I reached out to dancers I know both in South Africa and in the Netherlands to see if they would respond in movement while I watched. I focused my attention on the spots where their bodies had contact with the floor. These exact moments became my universe. Depending on the amount of pressure shared and time spent between body and ground, I developed a score. Eventually this score would become the basis on which I developed the designs for the 3-dimensional steel pieces. Each piece corresponding to a unique and fleeting moment of contact between dancer and ground.

A foot sweeping in an arc across the floor leaves behind a single line.

If the arc is made with the tip of the toe, the line of contact between mover and ground will be narrow, perhaps hardly present.

If the arc is made with the whole foot, the line of contact will widen.

Made with the whole body, the line of contact will be wider still.

And if the momentum of the arc is suddenly lost and the foot finds a resting spot on the floor, the line of contact will end in a solid point.

Using these observations and considering both mover and ground to be equal partners in design, any point of contact and consequential exchange of weight holds the possibility to become a floorplan and spatial arrangement. A dance, a child’s first steps, to swirl a finger across a surface; all of these things become littile architects in their own right. 
I welded the pieces together using sheet steel and finished the surface with a scribbly look which links the project back to the original graphic score.