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BEAU COLEMAN
Let Me Tell You That I Love You
Telematic One-to-One Performance (w/Public Participation & Viewing)
“Is there love in the telematic embrace?”
Roy Ascott
I would like to rework and transform my performance Let Me Tell You That I Love You for Fluid States
North/Pantopia Telematice Encounters. The original performance is inspired by the understanding that love
is an exchange, an ebb and flow of giving and receiving and reflects the true intimacy shared when words of
love are spoken. For Fluid States North/Pantopia Telematice Encounters, I want to investigate how the work
itself will transform and how its meaning will be (re)configured once distance and telematic presence becomes
two of its central elements.
PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS
Participants, in the Torshavn, Faroe Islands and Nuuk, Greenland sit at one of the café tables where they will
telematically encounter the artist situated in the North Atlantic House in Copenhagen, Denmark for an
intimate one-to-one performance. After a period of silence and observation, the artist tells the participant
what she loves about them.
Each statement will be completely truthful, and will begin with the phrase “I
love…”, stemming out of the present experience of the encounter (i.e. “I love your…”, “I love the way you…”).
There will be no time limit to the performance, allowing each participant to stay as long as they need and/or
wish to receive love. The intimacy of the encounter will be juxtaposed by the public viewing of the work.
Let Me Tell You That I Love You (Distant Islands) connects to Fluid States North/Pantopia Telematice
Encounters in that we all have a need to be seen and loved, yet many of us have experiences of rejection and
non-acceptance, making our lives seem at times, an ‘island’ experience. Let Me Tell You That I Love You
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(Distant Islands) offers a space for intimacy and acceptance, free from any agenda, other than to love and to
be loved. Simply the act of giving by the artist and receiving by the participant is enough.
When I presented Let Me Tell You That I Love You in Toronto, 2014, I was struck by how many people
wanted to participate; each bringing their own desires, vulnerabilities and need for love into the private space.
Every collaborative encounter, though following the same procedures, was remarkably different. With each
interaction, an intimate transmission took place, a signal given, received and returned again.
It is this
‘transmission’ that I wish to experiment with and expand through telematic communication and the
negotiation of distance.
The telematic technology at the heart of the Fluid States North performance will act as a metaphor for the
instant intimacy that takes place when ‘relational distance’ between two people is overcome. In this way, it is
the exchanged intimacy in Let Me Tell You That I Love You (Distant Islands) between each participant and
myself within a public sphere that will be the subject of enquiry.
NOTE: Intimacy has been an ongoing site of investigation in my work. Let Me Tell You That I Love You
(original & Distant Islands) echoes previous performances such as blanc, 2007, (re)Surfacing, 1999), You’re
In/You’re Out, 2001, So Long as You Ask Me, 2009, Miles of Aisles, 2010, Clock Piece, 2012, These Are Not My
Mother’s Hands (2013/14) and I Remember Holding and Washing Her Hands, 2013/14).
BIO
Beau Coleman is a performance and interdisciplinary artist whose work has been performed and/or exhibited
across North America, Europe and in parts of Africa, Australia and Asia. She has made works for a diverse
range of locations and contexts, whether they were situated in galleries, theatres, suspended over rivers or
projected onto buildings. Previous creations include live art, spoken word, digital media, site-specific
performance, video, dance and new media installation. Themes of isolation, suspension, identity and intimacy
are interrogated in her work.
Recent performances include Let Me Tell You That I Love You (Nuit Rose,
Toronto, 2013), These Are Not My Mother’s Hands and I Remember Holding and Washing Her Hands,
(videos/performance, Trinity Square Video, Toronto) and Clock Piece (GlougAIR Gallery, Month of Performance
Art Festival, Berlin). She is currently working on a series of performances, videos and installation focusing on
the performance of grief.
Beau received her training at the National Theatre School of Canada and is a
graduate of the Yale School of Drama. She has previously served as an associate artist with INMPR (Institute
for New Media Performance Research) in the United Kingdom and Mabou Mines in the New York City. Beau is
currently on faculty at the University of Alberta where she teaches interdisciplinary performance, theatre and
live art.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
NAME:
BEAU COLEMAN
ADDRESS:
9809 85th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA T6E 2J5
PHONE:
1 (780) 318-1961
EMAIL:
beau.coleman@ualberta.ca
AFFLILIATION:
Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Theatre and Performance
Department of Drama, University of Alberta
Edmonton, CANADA T6G 2C9