What does it mean to be “in relation” to oneself, to each other, and to the space in which we live and work? Under the divisive and alienating conditions of today, how does the relational act as a tool for imaging the imprints we leave and the linkages we build on and with one another? Touching on a wide range of arts and performance practices, this three-part roundtable will explore the idea of relationality and the notion of being “in relation” as a theme and methodology for mapping, planning, and reimagining both history and the historical present.

Can being “in relation” become a way of undoing the binds that often hold us in place? This final roundtable will think about the ways we reproduce ourselves as well as the sites in which such reproduction occurs. Often associated with the home and the notion of privacy, the particular sites in which we allow the limited boundaries of the self to become porous could be imagined as vibrant opportunities for thinking past the limited definition of the selfhood.

Ricardo Montez is an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the New School for Public Engagement. His research examines the performance of race, ethnicity, and sexuality in visual culture and media.He received his PhD from the Department of Performance Studies at New York University where he was also a Faculty Fellow in Latino Studies. Additionally, he held the Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellowship in Race and Ethnicity Studies in the Society of Fellows at Princeton University. His forthcoming book, Keith Haring’s Line: Race and the Performance of Desire, will be published by Duke University Press.

Travis Boyer is a Brooklyn-based artist who explores painting, sculpture, and performance through a language of textiles. His work has been presented and performed nationally and internationally, including in recent exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Joshua Lubin-Levy is a writer, dance dramaturg, and curator. Completing his PhD in the department of Performance Studies at New York University, his dissertation is centered on the life and work of Jack Smith, bringing together his interest in queer aesthetics and performance as critical practice. He is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program and currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For the past year he has been a Visiting Assistant Instructor in Theater and Performance at Bard College and this summer will join the faculty of the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University.

Image courtesy of Travis Boyer. Install photo from “Crocking Off the Bloom”