Void Hugger | A Performance in a Shipping Container 2024

performance, 35 minutes 
fabric, hair, buttons, silver sterling
Parent Company Gallery April 2024
garments, performer, choreographer, and jewellery: Ye'ela Wilschanski
curator: Ada Potter
video and photos: Maya Baran
rehearsal support: Rachel Hillery

full performance 

Void Hugger is an architectural garment inspired by the role of possessions in uprooted transitions. Within the framing of a shipping container, the performance explores frames that hold onto moments in time. Hugging a void could create a container for oneself.

Within the framing of a repurposed shipping container to an art gallery, I flip through six fabrics that are folded like a book. Each turn introduces a domestic interior with frames/windows. Some of the sixteen frames are aligned, creating a continuous window between all the interiors. The first and last interior identical, similar to a books endpaper. In the first interior, I interact with fragments of the fabric's pattern. The second interior is two sided. The first side has pockets that open like pantry cupboards, holding portraits sewn from my hair. The second side holds frames for the portraits to be hung. The third interior is four arched windows. The fabric behind the arches is altered between dark and light similar to the day color palette cycling through a window. A laundry line with miniature garments is hung below the windows.