[untitled specimen], gathering 2023, a group show presented by the Meaningful Movement Toronto

The goal with [untitled specimen] was to collaborate by developing research on combining movement with still imagery and to question what humanity an out-of-context visual of the body actually contains. Katie developed choreographic rules and restrictions that when placed on her in a deep state of improvisation, the dance was only able to exist in a spherical container. This form defined our project further by catalyzing our questions of the abstract body into a performance on a timeline.

With cyanotype we were able to manually arrive at our final images by using the elemental formula of chemical, sun exposure, water, and air drying. Conceptually, transforming the body with chemicals, fire, water, metal wire, and fabrics can be further interpreted as depictions of intense emotions, struggle, femininity, and the body’s fragility. By using the alternative printing process of cyanotype, we retained the ability to work within the “blueprints” of our discoveries, lending to the original mathematical intention of the medium’s development in the late 19th century.

The final dance appeared in the installation of a long horizontal line with 34 stills that travelled around an empty room, sometimes branching vertically. The audience were necessary players in the exhibition, completing the choreography by walking through the installation and viewing each still side by side like a stop-motion picture.

the “dance” was choreographed in three phases; the first phase started with Katie entering improvisation within predetermined rules while I captured still images; then the second phase of ordering physical prints of the images to exist in a linear timeline that connected different poses to each other; and the third phase taking place by the audience perpetuating the movement of the dancer by walking around the room along the timeline, viewing each pose sequentially.

[untitled specimen]
Haylie Dittrich & Katie Adams-Gossage