s ‘bearing witness to the knotting skies’: some reflections from the f/old

This photo essay is based on a video installation that I created in the pandemic year of 2021 titled ‘bearing witness to the knotting skies’. Originating in my experiences of learning crocheting from my mother in order to cope with the claustrophobia of the time, the video was meant to reflect my renewed relationship to dance and language. My hope was to understand in what words to articulate an isolated performing body, and how to invite a spectator to engage with her. One key question that informed the making of this work and sparked my interactions with the ‘fold’ was: how do the internal and the external, the macroscopic and the microscopic, the intimate and the landscape intersect each other? This essay focuses on the inspirations I drew from the ‘fold’ and those that continue to influence my ongoing inquiries on dance, knitting, and liminality.

Keywords: body and material ; dance and camera ; dance during pandemic ; knitting as dance ; mothering ; performance and claustrophobia ; performing ; women and thresholds