wherever you go, I will….

Walking performances are an integral part of my artistic practice.  This was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic when I performed what I called a series of ‘Wanderings’, whereby I would traverse uncharted paths, sometimes alone, sometimes with other artists, throughout the city of Edmonton, often for a duration of 5 - 8 hours at a time, letting curiosity and chance be my guide.  These walks served as a metaphor for the pandemic itself; both sharing the unpredictability of what we were experiencing and allowing for creative introspection and intersections with the unknown.  My ‘wanderings’ subsequently led to the creation of a 10-day ‘following piece’ in 2021, entitled wherever you go I will…, in which I ‘followed’ the following self-imposed instructions below during my performative ‘wanderings’:

I will go for a walk each day and follow someone.

If I choose, I may transfer my ‘following’ action onto to another person, if the person I am following crosses paths with that person.

I will not speak to the person I am following unless spoken to.

I will document my following action each day.

In the summer of 2023, I will be performing an extended 30-day version of wherever you go, I will….  Part public performance/part artistic research, I am curious as to what unexpected encounters will occur.  What creative discoveries will be made along each of the paths taken in pursuit of someone I do not know, and never will?  How does one’s perceptions change when one wanders with strangers?

For Flow 2023, I wish to share not only the discoveries made during this summer’s wherever you go I will…, but to do so while performing a ‘real-time’ hybrid version for symposium. In some ways, this briefer version of wherever you go I will… will be a meditation on, and a response to this summer’s extended performance, while experiencing it anew.  As Heraclitus once said, ‘no (person) can step into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and they are not the same (person)’.