by Joanna Richardson

Tenuous Connections is an interactive performance centring around an experimental dinner set.

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The dinner table is a ritualistic space in Western Culture. From elaborate Victorian feasts to the nuclear family table, the sharing of a meal is laden with etiquette, symbolism, and social navigation. Tenuous Connections makes visible the tensions and relationships at play among the people at the table. As a whole or individually, the diners can choose how they act and react to the pulling of their utensils. One can easily snap the thread, either by a decisive pull or a careless motion, but what are the consequences of the break? In the socially scripted setting of the dinner table, the snap of the thread could be amplified into a violent action. Do the diners feel freed by their connective burden? Or do they mourn the physical separation from each other?

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The tone of Tenuous Connections shifts with each group of people who come to dine. Whether it is a joyous artwork celebrating community, or a performance weighted with tension depends on who comes, picks up a cup, and brings it to life.