He Whom You Shall Love Is Absent
Funded by The Arts Council, DYCP
Performed at The Swiss Church, London.
By Sarah White, with tyroneisaacstuart.
In collaboration with Gardner & Gardner.
15 April 2023. Live Performance, 90 minutes
Movement direction by Laura Doehler.
Supported by The Swiss Church Arts Programme.
This performance sharing was the culmination of research and development funded by The Arts Council DYCP.
He Whom You Shall Love Is Absent is an improvised performance (with dance, object and text) by Sarah White, with tyroneisaacstuart: exploring faith and doubt, belief and disbelief. The work exists within the space of improvised performance - and the acts of attention, listening and contemplation - as a site for sense-making of the unknown or not-yet-fully-known. The performance itself is a site for movement research and generation.
The title of the work is taken from Simone Weil’s text Gravity and Grace, ‘to put our life into that which we cannot touch in any way…It is impossible…. That is what is required.’ How do we affirm the impossible and lean into that which we cannot see? How do you give yourself to that which you cannot touch, and sometimes cannot hear? How do we sense and make-sense of this mystery?