By Rachael Warecki ’08听
When Associate Professor of Dance Kevin Williamson began working on his co-collaborative movement project with Nguyen Nguy锚n and Maria Gillespie, to get there from here, he thought of it as a 鈥済esture toward empathy.鈥� The exhibition, which combined video footage of the three collaborators moving through vastly different environments, explored the artists鈥� physical and emotional landscapes as they negotiated both the allure and the impossibility of arriving at a destination.听听
Each performer鈥檚 work was informed by their own identity and experiences: For Williamson, it was the nature of discomfort and queer pleasure; for Nguy锚n, it was navigating unfamiliar terrains as a refugee from Vietnam; and for Gillespie, it was the erasure and restoration of her Mexican heritage. Williamson hoped that audiences would reflect on their own process of self-discovery鈥攈ow memories perpetually shape our journeys.听听
鈥淲e wanted audiences to experience the visceral sensation of trying to belong in and make sense of the world,鈥� he says.听
The exhibition was the apotheosis of an enduring artistic vision for Williamson, who had long dreamed of creating a gallery installation as a movement artist. After earning his BA and MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles鈥� department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, Williamson lived in New York City and abroad before returning to Southern California. His numerous accolades include the Lester Horton Award, which honors excellence in the field of modern dance, and recognition as a finalist for the Center Theatre Group Sherwood Award, which is given annually to 鈥渋nnovative and adventurous鈥� theater artists in Los Angeles. His performances and choreography have received awards from the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival and the Madrid Arthouse Filmfest, and he has collaborated with the Washington National Opera, the Juilliard School in New York City, and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. At Scripps, he teaches classes from Core I and II鈥攖he first courses taken by first-year students in the Core Curriculum in Interdisciplinary Humanities鈥攁ll the way through senior thesis.听
So, it鈥檚 been a long journey to get there from here. The exhibition鈥檚 logistics only began to come together last year. In May 2021, Williamson was one of the first tourists to visit Iceland when the country re-opened to outside visitors after its COVID-19 pandemic closure. Traveling solo鈥攁 trip he describes as 鈥渃ontemplative鈥濃�攈e explored the topography of Iceland, taking video footage of himself moving through harsh Icelandic landscapes.听
Williamson then began working with Nguy锚n and Gillespie to create a series of videos, set in different locations, all in conversation with one another and with the central theme of arrival as an impossibility. In addition to Williamson鈥檚 footage from Iceland, the videos included Nguy锚n鈥檚 films shot in arid desert regions and Gillespie鈥檚 movements captured in and around buildings near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Each segment contained uniquely striking imagery: Williamson stretching as ice-capped mountains loomed in the background, Nguy锚n crawling under barbed wire and squeezing between boulders, Gillespie lolling at the top of cement stairs decorated with graffiti.听听
鈥淲e wanted to create movement sketches in meaningful environments, to explore how our bodies contour to and are affected by these environments,鈥� Williamson says. 鈥淲e see this footage as a conduit to mapping journeys without arrivals.鈥�听
The six-week installation of to get there from here鈥攖he Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery鈥檚 fall 2022 exhibition鈥攆eatured the co-collaborators鈥� panoramic video footage projected onto three of the gallery鈥檚 four walls. Williamson, Nguy锚n, and Gillespie also filmed close-up, more intimate footage that formed part of a smaller installation in alcoves along the Gallery鈥檚 fourth wall. These films, Williamson explains, were interpretations from each artist鈥檚 past: Williamson鈥檚 footage, for example, examined his childhood exploration of gender through the lens of his lived experience as a gay man in adulthood. The footage played on outdated technologies were interspersed within collections of shoes, blankets, dirt, and teacups鈥斺�渕aterials that help us journey,鈥� as Williamson describes them. When combined with the videos, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e objects as landscape as memory.鈥�听
The exhibition鈥檚 highlight occurred in September, when Williamson, Nguy锚n, and Gillespie joined fellow dancers Keith Johnson, Rebecca Lemme, and the LA Contemporary Dance Company to perform a series of new dance works across the Scripps campus. The performances鈥攚hich took place in Garrison Theater and the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery鈥攚ere accompanied by an opportunity to dine and engage in discourse with the artists among food trucks parked outside the gallery.听
鈥淚 found the interaction between still life and embodied performance thrilling,鈥� Williamson says of the opportunity to interact with the gallery installation through dance. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been such a gift to engage with gallery attendees and with students in classes that visited the installation over the course of the semester鈥攈earing about their personal memories, and how the objects and physical movements conjured different feelings of both isolation and a collective desire to belong in the world.鈥�听
Naturally, the journey of to get there from here will not end with the closing of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery exhibition. Says Williamson: 鈥淭he collaborators and I will continue layering the archive in variation and through performance in other galleries鈥攏ever quite arriving, but always evolving.鈥�
This story first appeared in the fall 2022 print issue of Scripps听magazine.