Created while streaming live from each of our home-studios based in New York and Illinois, USA, using real-time manipulation of live video and sound with dancer Rachel Gill, overlaid with objects spinning from gwen charles’ studio, the overlapping images reflect the dizzying and layered feelings of being under self-isolation under the state-mandated shelter-in-place related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The wide-eyed figures stare out from the center of the record player which plays only the sound of the skipping on the vinyl records, a space between each figure as if social distancing. The figure on the record player wears a swing carousel hat, continuously spinning the small people on the ride that cannot get off. The carousel, a reliable fixture at the carnival, holds a pattern that doesn’t change, which can be comforting but also can feel boring or even nauseating to some.

The bright-colored figures are from Channapatna, a small town in the state of Karnataka, India devoted to the art of hand turning wooden lacquered toys for over 200 years. The sound is a combination of live sound from the dancer’s movements and from two vintage vinyl records skipping.