Don't Touch

° Performance, video installation, public workshop °

¬ 2023 ¬

This site-specific research explores how deliberate, slow movement and vocalisation can shift our relationship to sculptures and space.

I often don’t know how to relate to art.

Frustrated by how institutional settings inhibit bodily response, I began approaching artworks through slow, freeform movement; guided by three rules which define acceptable gallery etiquette:

Move slowly, vocalise quietly, don’t touch.

The practice led me to a deeper, embodied way of looking. Meditative movement focuses attention, allowing a gradual discovery of an artwork’s details and material complexity, registering them at the level of the whole body rather than just the mind. This marked a clear shift from the restless uncertainty I often experience in galleries.

From this process, I developed a live slow-movement performance, a video installation documenting the research, and a public workshop inviting others to inhabit the same careful, attentive mode.