Autumn Knight
In my interdisciplinary work, I create performances, installation and video works that re-think and re-make societal ideas about race, gender, history and the marginal. A combination of research, visual mapping, improvisational rehearsal, scripting and documentation through
photography, edited video and written explorations provide a multitude of entry points.
Voyeuristic curiosity supplements a range of material sources including traditional and dramatic texts, interviews and hands-on engagement.
My interests also concern the intersection of psychoanalysis and public space. To this end, I critique and deconstruct boundaries of the institutions that are constructed to be socially supportive. In my live work, I often examine how audiences interact with the black female authority; how participants make real conceptual material and how they can benefit from a conceptual/social experiment. These themes have combined into movement/dance choreography,
video, sound, sculpture and public performance.
When approaching more personal subjects such as gendered and racialized bodies, I place myself in the center of performances as the container for the developing content. Architectural structures often emerge as pivotal forces in the realization of my performance and video work. My work is in relationship with both performance practices and the theoretical and clinical experiences of
therapist training. I am constantly developing hypotheses around wellness using culturally relevant material and juxtaposing it with the absurd.
My practices embodies a range of concepts around physical intimacy, global architectural commonalities, and present/ future reclamations of power. With each work I aim to put forth inquiries concerning the boundaries of social contracts.