Allyson Packer, lecturer in CVAD Foundations, will premiere a new performance, "Words That We Feel (Work That Resides in Our Bodies)," on Aug. 28, 2021, at the online Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performance Art at the University of the Arts Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Packer's performance examines the somatic effects of the virtualization of daily experience and the attendant cultural myth that our bodies are quickly becoming an irrelevant factor in interpreting our relationships to the material world. Devised to unfold over the virtual conference platform, her performance will test the capacity of language to reach across the physical distance that virtuality creates and engage embodied experience to facilitate intimate shared experiences.
The Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performance Art, CARPA, is described as "a biennial colloquium, organized by the Performing Arts Research Centre at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, aimed at addressing the problems and possibilities of artistic research, particularly those involving the performing arts. The term ‘performing arts’ is here understood in a broad sense that encompasses a variety of different creative practices. The purpose of the colloquia is to contribute to the development of research practices in the field of the performing arts and to foster their social, pedagogical and ecological connections."
Packer makes artwork that explores our relationship with the built environment. In her installations, she engages viewers to examine the myths and values embedded in the spaces we inhabit. Packer earned her M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and B.F.A. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has shown work at Nahmad Projects in London and the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, in addition to solo exhibitions at venues across the United States. Most recently, she completed a collaborative project with students at Montgomery College called Sit-In/Walk Out, which explored the possibilities of protest as a creative form.
