“Thank God for the One who Pushes. ‘I Hope I Wait for the Hug.’” was performed during the Maximum Perception Performance Festival, curated by Peter Dobill and Phoenix Lights. The work refers to the idea of having a certain capacity and respect for a force that is greater-a force that pushes one beyond a place of familiarity. It references a sense of relief in being led over a threshold over and over again. It is someone’s role to push. It is someone’s role to receive. Consistent with an underlying theme in all Faurot & Paulson performances, these roles may reverse.

“Thank god for the one who pushes.” This statement reflects gratitude for that which makes one uncomfortable. The growth process happens here, as does the life of the student. It should be noted that Faurot recently completed the Jivamukti Yoga teacher apprenticeship program with Lady Ruth Lauer-Manenti, while Paulson recently began studies in Five Element Acupuncture. Both artists are students within particular traditions and are forever celebrating the relationship between copying and following through their work and lives.

The performance deals with the problem of waiting for the support or the reward. Can one wait to be helped? The problem and reward are reversed-another reference to the copying and following roles (or teacher and student roles) being reversed. The “one who pushes” is celebrated, yet there is uncertainty that one can actually “wait for the hug.” Does one have the power to wait? Is one humble enough to wait? Does one have the capacity to receive what is being offered? “I hope I wait for the hug.”

Faurot and Paulson sit back-to-back in reclining chairs with branches and brush in the laps of their nude bodies. Behind each artist is a video of herself: Paulson sits in a wooden antique wheelchair de-needling branches of a pine tree, which lie across her lap; Faurot alternates between rocking back and forth on a piece of the wheelchair or draping her body over a sawhorse. In both videos, the artists work privately. The videos and the real-time tableaux reference the possible dilemma of being held back from their centers. They wait, however, as a third performer, Katurah Hutcheson, periodically drapes her body across their centers, disregarding the brush that separates their bodies. Faurot & Paulson wait for her hug. The problem is solved, and the question becomes: “Must one be ready for the hug to receive it?” Thank god for the one who pushes.