The live performances of British artist Cally Spooner (born 1983) consider the ways in which labor and communication make demands on our bodies. Spooner engages actors, vocalists, dancers and musicians who collectively interrogate gesture and language. The artist’s 2016 exhibition at the New Museum, Cally Spooner: On False Tears and Outsourcing, marks an important shift in her live performances, extending their duration to the length of a museum exhibition. The choreography is structured according to the logic of corporate development meetings, and appropriates gestures from both romantic movies and competitive contact sports. This catalogue contains an essay by Helga Christoffersen, an interview between Spooner and Documenta 14 curator Hendrik Folkerts, and a contribution by artist Dan Graham.

Visual artist(s): Cally Spooner
Contributions by: Dan Graham, Hendrik Folkerts