project image
The Childlike Empress
ATTACHMENTS

first performed on November 17, 2019
Glitter Box Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
performed twice in 2019

LENA CHEN

Michael Charles Neumann

Pittsburgh, PA / Berlin, Germany
lena@lenachen.com
lenachen.com

ATTACHMENTS
LENA CHEN

In “Attachments,” the play of tension, restriction, and force between two distinct bodies reveals the shifting asymmetrical power dynamics underlying intimate relationships. In lieu of direct touch, bodily contact is mediated through rope, which tethers the artists to each other as they move through the foyer of a neoclassical building, cling at various architectural elements, and drag themselves across the floor. The rope, tightening around the frame of their bodies, functions as a metaphor for the psychological and physiological ties that bind us in a dance of desire, repulsion, and entanglement.