Informances

The Informances are an ongoing series of participatory artworks based on the structures of weaving. They fuse together ideas of conceptual art, craft and therapeutics through a set of guided experiences. During an Informance participants explore their external tactile and visual experiences while considering their interior thoughts and feelings. The experimental exercises help build connections between participants. The Informances are inspired by Francine Shapiro’s ground breaking trauma therapies of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), Fluxus Art and the Brazilian Neo–concrete artists of the 1950s and ’60s who rejected pure forms of geometric abstraction for more sensorial methods of art making.

The first Informance, created in 2013 for an exhibition at the Pomona College Museum of Art, was based on interpreting the position of the viewer in Herman Minkowski's model of space/time and special relativity. In the Human Loom participants use a set of soft, colorful bands to problem solve the construction of geometric shapes within a group setting. The Human Loom was designed for an event at the UCLA Hammer for the exhibition “Look Before You Leap, Black Mountain College 1933-1957” in 2016 and most recently performed at Shannon Farm, in central Virginia, June of 2024. In the Textagraph Informance, 2016-18, participants interact with a set of giant hand-woven fleece potholders. These were initially created for an exhibition at the Crisp Ellert Art Museum in St. Augustine Fl. in 2016. I developed Human Luminescence, while undergoing EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) therapy in 2018-19. These Informances integrate woven matts, ultraviolet light and fluorescent bands into explorative exercises that are inspired by the physical processing of my own traumatic experiences. The Informances continue to evolve and grow – balancing new and old technologies, ideas and forms of embodiment.

Krysten Cunningham