Exchange

Exchange is a series of four collaborative performance artworks: ‘Taxi Guff Gaff’ (2016), ‘Paradox of Praxis’ (2016), ‘Frozen Unfrozen’ (2016) and ‘Walking with Milk’ (2017). Contextualised by workshops and arts-informed encounters, they extend Fox’s long-term research into how communication is fostered and developed, particularly with vulnerable or excluded people. Each of the performances investigates non-verbal conversation and, more specifically, the relationship between motion and communicative exchange. The performances experiment with forms of shared activity and exchange: an ice block passed between performers or pushed together through a city; a collective drawing exercise in the rear seat of a moving taxi; five women carrying bowls filled to the brim with milk through Basantapur Durbar Square, Kathmandu. The enquiry pivoted on the notion of non-verbal meeting, informed by Tim Ingold’s concept of ‘dwelling together’, Jean-Luc Nancy’s expanded concept of listening, which accepts that listening involves attuning to that which is beyond signification, and Richard Sennett’s work on cooperation. The research created ‘meeting points’ through conscious engagement with material objects and highlighted the understanding of elements such as pace and movement in a process of emotional exchange. The framework of a journey provided insights into the effect of motion to develop expanded listening and enable creative exchange. Performances were developed and staged at Tate Modern, London (2016) and Kathmandu (2016, 2017) with extended art-based encounters developed for festivals in at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung (2017), the National Gallery (May 2018), London New Taipei City Arts Centre (August 2018) and the Seoul Museum of Art (2019). Fox has featured these research insights in keynote talks, including: British Council East Asia Regional Conference, Liverpool (2016); Inclusion and Diversity event, National Taiwan Museum, Taipei (2017); The Korean Disability Arts and Culture Center (2018)