This series of performances in public space, captured as video tableaux with a hidden camera, makes vivid the social codes of co-existence in urban space by breaking those codes with simple acts of physical touch. Reactions, refusals to react, and potent juxtapositions of the movements of the public enter the scene incidentally as the camera maintains its fixed, uncut view of the unfolding intimacy. An ongoing project initiated in 2012, these videos are accumulating as Prasad continues to stage scenes in the various cities she travels to.

The performers are a mixture of trained actors and un-trained participants and their gestures, while often playful, also suggest potential violation or vulnerability. As a man places his hand on the knee of another man unknown to him on the metro, we can immediately imagine a reaction which might be aggressive. Similarly, seeing some one approached from behind while withdrawing cash from an ATM, a mugging comes to mind. And yet these expectations are bucked, and turned. The interaction which unfolds is tender and rhythmic. It takes up residence in the urban scene of daily life, making those other unplanned movements which surround it a part of its dance.

Artist Bio
Sunita Prasad (b. 1984, Syracuse NY) lives and works in New York City. Sunita’s works have been exhibited, screened, and performed at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Miradas de Mujeres Festival in Barcelona, MAMO Centre d’Art in Marseille, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and Flux Factory and Momenta Art in New York City. Her images and writing have been published inCahiers Intempestifs, FUSE Magazine, The Nation Blog, and The Indypendent. Sunita has been honored with awards from the Art Matters Foundation and the Brooklyn Arts Council, and several international residencies including Homesession in Barcelona and SKE Projects in Bangalore. Sunita’s collaborations include projects with Laryssa Husiak, the Ecocide Project, Red Channels, Some Feminists in Your Neighborhood, Frédéric Durieu, Jean Barberis, and Rabid Hands. She is currently on the faculty of the International Center of Photography.