Performance artists Ashmina Ranjit and Alice Fox performed their new duet Paradox of Praxis 1 #2 (Pushing Together) through the streets of Kathmandu during monsoon. Ranjit and Fox, silently using the ‘practices of expanded listening’ (Fox, MacPherson 2016) will duet through the streets of Kathmandu City. Each performer, connected through their joint exertion, slowly, persistently pushing a large block of ice, quietly finding strength and direction from the companionship of the other.
Both women, dressed in defiant red silk, navigate the ever diminishing ice through a time travelling route. Starting in the 16th century Durbar Square, persevering through the cracked, jagged and bumpy city landscape to the modern area of Durbar Marg.
The performance concludes at the Parliament Buildings where we are presented with the ice finally melting to nothing.
The work honours and re-contextualizes Francis Alys’ performance the Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads To Nothing) originally performed in Mexico in1997.
The performance recognizes and celebrates the proposition in Alys’ original work of ‘Sometimes Making Leads to Nothing’ and in addition asks;
1. Can the process of making something that leads to nothing offer us something?
2. Can journeying together through futility earn or teach us something?
