Moved by you

2020 painting, and video collaboration.

A creative collaboration initiated out of the desire to connect and move, during this strange and isolating time - Covid-19, Pandemic of 2020. Reshma Gajjar, performing artist and Kristi Head, visual artist, both living in Los Angeles, came together (digitally) to move one another’s artistic expression. The final culmination, this short film, is an interpretation of their exchanges by photographer and filmmaker, Rob Stark, and acts as yet another movement of the continued conversation.

Reshma’s Experience

I love collaborating, especially with an artist I admire, whose work I love and one that understands and appreciates the artist that I am. So when Kristi came to me with an idea for an Art Isolation Collaboration, I was more than down and excited. Great now where do we start? Who starts this relay of art inspiring more art? Her paintings or my movements?

This was already starting to feel fun. Knowing my need for a sense of structure, and how much music will have a major factor on tone, style and essentially dictate my body, I had her pick three songs from which I would choose one. The song that I chose was Nina Simone, Do I Move You? This was how it all began. Nina is asking the question that Kristi and I are asking each other. In the song, her question feels more like a statement to me, which was inspiring and comforting in this time of uncertainty.

This collaboration came at the perfection time. With the start of quarantine I had started what I called “Morning Moves” a challenge for myself to freestyle everyday. The only request Kristi had for me was that she could see my body, she knew that an oversized hoody had become my uniform for weeks. I sent her a take of me improvising to the whole song, a few days later she sent me video of her doing the same on canvas. After our first pass, we found that having me move in slow motion to find dramatic, gestural shapes was the winner. I loved seeing which moments she would select and pleased to find that we were drawn to the same ones. Eventually, one day I got a photo of a painting that said “Final Final”. I was moved”.

Rob’s Experience

“It’s so nice to be invited to collaborate on a project when you know that the artists involved are open minded and respect that interpretation and collaboration at it’s best both provokes and promotes surprise. During the quarantine I felt like we all craved connection, that we were all wrestling to find a voice in that void that was different to anything we had experienced, a voice that was also different to anything we had previously expressed.

My desire to engage in Kristi and Reshma’s exchange sparked quickly. Making a piece about physical isolation and separation for me quickly begun to speak to how our voices and visual language are not impaired in the same way, how we could reach out beyond the feeling of physical suppression. There was a catharsis and inspiring quality that came from that. After we first spoke both Kristi and Reshma explored capturing new and different aspects of the conversation that would help frame it for an audience. When I started to really dig in to the footage and get a sense of the essence of the piece the Nina Simone (even though it had inspired so much of the conversation) started to feel very provocative. The sense I was getting of their conversation was that it was a quieter, more respectful and intimate exchange. I felt that the music needed to be more ethereal and abstract. For this reason I decided to deconstruct the Nina Simone and mix it with another piece. This led me to the Fila Brazillia track”. The stripped down moments of Nina Simone against the Fila Brazillia track felt to me like it brought a greater sense of space for the appreciation that Kristi and Reshma feel for each other. Ultimately the whole thing felt very personal to each of us involved and I feel that the final piece has the voice of a collective in that regard. I’m grateful to have been a part of it, it was certainly a unique experience.

Kristi’s Experience

During this time of stagnation it has been challenging to find inspiration, and to awaken creativity, to keep moving against the looming essence of petrification.

In an effort to unbind these feelings, I reached out to my friend Reshma, a dancer, a creative, and an overall open-minded full spirited woman.

I asked her if she wanted to video herself dancing and send it to me, so that I could then interpret her gestures and energy through painting. I had no large vision or perceived outcome, I simply was reaching - for connection and galvanization. Reshma, suggested we play a little, and have a conversation back and forth. Dance, paint, download experience, dance, paint, etc.. This would allow the pieces to be more fluid, and morph more into... who knew.

Once we felt complete with our ‘conversation’, I asked my dear friend Rob, a compelling visual story teller, if he wanted to edit the (selfie) footage. The result, here, is a genuine illumination of the ways we can move one another through connection, collaboration and creativity, even during this strange time of distance, stillness and uncertainty”.