fig-2 24/50 Ben Judd: Apart, We are Together

In Ben Judd’s practice, the choreographic and the rhythmic are used as a method of constructing and examining communities. He has been investigating ways in which the movement of performers and audience members can be carefully controlled in order to suggest a unifying experience, but also to question the relationship between immersion and a more self-conscious, knowing state, as performed by both actors and participants of ritual.

In his new work for fig-2, Apart, We are Together extends these concerns by employing the ‘pose slide’ genre of magic lantern projections, popular in variety theatre, pantomime, and vaudeville in Europe and USA, 1890s-1950s. By examining a blurred boundary between dramatic performance and liturgical drama, Judd will rethink ways in which ritualised group actions can shift an individual’s and a group’s status, suggesting a fluxing state of perpetual becoming in which participants are suspended between points of departure and arrival.

Ben Judd (b. 1970, London, UK).  Lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions and performances include: Whitstable Biennale, UK (2014); James Taylor Gallery, London (2011); KINOKINO, Norway (2011); Center of Contemporary Art of Tbilisi, Georgia (2011); Swedenborg Society, London (2010); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010); David Roberts Art Foundation (2009); Dorsky Gallery, New York (2009); Barbican Art Gallery, London (2009); Kunstbunker, Nuremberg (2008); Zendai MoMA, Shanghai (2008); The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2008); Kunstvlaai, Amsterdam (2008).

Judd’s performance Apart, We are Together will take place on Thursday 18 June at the ICA Studio from 6.15 – 7pm and 7.30 – 8.15pm.

24/50 Ben Judd is at fig-2 from Monday 15 – Sunday 21 June 2015.