Short Excerpt from Tête-à-tête

My work attributes human relations as its medium; to produce reactive moments between its participants through the dialogue of loneliness, on a topic that feels individualistic and isolating. Can loneliness become intersubjective, affective, moving between bodies, to form a collective loneliness? Can collective loneliness, the act of being lonely together, the act of identification with another’s loneliness, promote a sense of belonging? Is belonging even a possibility; even if it exists only in a moment as something in-between, fleeting, and difficult to grasp?
Over a period of two years, I engaged in conversations about loneliness and belonging with hundreds of people. My performative, dialogical interventions explored human interactions and the potential for connection, empathy and intimacy to emerge through the act of participation.
Tête-à-tête, is a two channel video installation, which narrates a dialogue between two participants at a time (52 people in total) exploring their experiences of loneliness. The conversation chairs (tête-à-tête, meaning head-to-head) on which they sit, encourage connection and intimacy between the two participants. A collective narrative of loneliness , and belonging, emerges.