is anybody out there?
Is Anybody Out There? Collaboration with Liz Oakley (2020)
Is anybody out there? is an evolving installation set on the artists’ fire escape facing the neighboring brownstones’ courtyards. Over time, the text and performing object installation attempts to communicate with the households that they see daily from their window — but never talk to — with the eventual goal of collaborating on a live puppetry performance. Every few days, they add increasingly direct statements and questions to our initial transmission: “Hello Neighbors, Happy Spring!”
This video was meant to be the first in a series of three documenting our increasinly direct communication with our neighbors and final performance. However, on May 25, 2020 George Floyd was murdered by police and our neighborhood was forever changed by the police violence two blocks away at Barclays Center and Fort Greene Park. We decided to put aside the project as our priorities changed. This video stands alone as documentation of the expansive and optimistic early days of the Covid-19 pandemic when sirens blared to thank healthcare workers not as a warning before running down protestors.
Is anybody out there was created as part of 19 Acts of COVID-19 Bravery--a digital performance platform that ran from April – August 2020. Co-curated and produced by Kate Ladenheim and Brendan Drake, the series supported more than 20 artists in thecreation of unique works that responded to the coronavirus pandemic.
The series was profiled in Dance Magazine’s “6 of Our Favorite Digital Dance Projects to Come Out of Quarantine.”