A weekend of immersive performances inspired by the webs that connects the cells of our bodies to the grand sweeps of history.
Immersive arts meets interactive performance...
We are raising funds to produce a weekend of immersive happenings. Bay Area multidisciplinary artists, LindenJL and Puja Tolton, are teaming up to create an experimental marriage of installation and performance art.
Inspired by the webs that connect the smallest cells of our bodies to the grandest sweeps of history, this gathering will lead our audience through entangled narratives and unstable perimeters. As co-collaborators, guests will delve into our calcified barriers and find ways to make a home in ambiguity.
Using real-world biological and anthropological research as an inspirational font, performers will devise and generate three days of immersive shows. Audience members will be invited to explore the installation, interact with the players, and ultimately come together to build community and create their own narrative.
Kin-making within our bodies...
Our intention is to use this project to bring people together to explore realities that are hidden beneath the surface. We want to make this surface permeable, to expose some of the strange ways that we are deeply interconnected with each other, our environments, and our histories. By navigating these new connections with our audience, we hope to create tools to face a rapidly changing world together.
Social theorist Donna Haraway gave the mandate for us to ‘keep up with the trouble’. We intend to make a home there.
Let me describe the present situation we are all familiar with: each of us is tasked by necessity to make a home in a time of shifting landscapes and intangible realities. The categories that defined who we are and our place in the world have withered and folded into themselves under the pressure of collapsing global systems. We’ve been analyzed and atomized, broken down into machine parts limping along to keep up demand. How can we break through our thick individualist skins and imagine new ways of being?
OUR STORY
Linden and Puja met back in 2019 at an Oakland based artist co-op and have been living together in communal spaces ever since. One of the benefits of these unorthodox communities is the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another. We soon found that our creative styles meshed and after many late night conversations where we waxed poetic about the idea of collaborating on a project that combined our interests and skill sets we finally decided to bite the bullet and co-produce this show.
WHO WE ARE
VISUAL ART DIRECTOR
LINDENJL
Oakland-based artist, designer, and arts community organizer. Their work explores estrange embodiment, recursive identity building, and indeterminate boundaries through installation and mixed media practices. Their work has been featured in arts & music venues such as Envision Festival, the Loom, and Burning Man.
![image1540[1].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fd09ff_d4fd7470a83a459388dbb566b82d8c3d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_330,h_406,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/image1540%5B1%5D.png)
PERFORMANCE ART DIRECTOR
PUJA TOLTON
Multi-disciplinary theatre artisan based in the Bay Area who takes great joy in cultivating and collaborating on works that explore a multitude of genres and mediums. She has worked with local theatre companies such as Left Coast Theatre, Awesome Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, and Three Girls Theatre. You can check out their short film I Broke the Looking Glass on Awesome Theatre’s youtube channel.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
We love volunteers!
We're looking for event volunteers to take tickets serve beverages, and assist with set up and clean up.
Want to get involved on the creative side?
Hang out and help with costumes, props, and installation design before the show. Skill sharing, snacks, and free tickets available as perks!
Interested in performing?
We are looking for 2-4 performers with experience working with an ensemble, in devised theatre, movement, and/or interactive performance. Paid position.