Figure 8

Figure 8 is a 35-min video recording of a solo movement performance that explores displacement, ancestry and identity through the lens of gesture. Based on interviews conducted with eight of the artist's family members from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the work follows the artist as she situates them in her home and moves through their gestures using mimesis. Set within an improvisational structure, the piece is split into five sections that offer a different relationship to the gestures as influenced by the audio, use of the objects, space, and costume. The sound score interlaces portions of each family member’s voice clips from the interviews with distortion, repetition, and pop references while the gestures are repeated until they begin to dissolve in a process of entropy. The piece was envisioned as a live show in the theatre but transformed into an online performance due to COVID-19, and as a result was able to be shared with, experienced, and witnessed by the very people it was seeking to treasure.