Workshop with Tarren Johnson and Joel Cocks

08 February. Free entry.

Please register for this workshop by emailing physicsroom@physicsroom.org.nz

LOCATION: Toi Auaha, 5 Worcester Boulevard
TIME: 11am-3pm
Light refreshments will be provided.

In conjunction with Blank Banquet, Tarren Johnson and Joel Cocks will lead a workshop for practitioners interested in exploring compositional strategies that merge creative writing with movement for performance. The day begins with a guided warm-up to prepare the body and mind for creative exploration. Through a series of exercises that combine physical movement with writing techniques, participants will develop their own short performance sketches.

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Tarren Johnson, an American artist and choreographer from Southern California, and Joel Cocks, an artist from Ōtautahi, have collaborated since 2016. Together, they have developed an evolving archive that includes performances in different states of completion, as well as photographs and videos from various productions and their personal lifes. Johnson and Cocks recontextualise this material to create new works that explore fragmentation, cultural reproduction, and the peripheries of spectacle.

Their collective work has been presented at Systema, Marseille; Bologna.cc, Amsterdam; and Paris Internationale’s public programme; as well as Volksbühne, Berlin; HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; Tanzhaus Zürich; Les Urbaines, Lausanne; Sophiensæle, Berlin; and Festspielhaus Hellerau. Tarren has performed at venues and festivals such as Festival d’Avignon; Festival d’Automne à Paris; Faurschou New York; Romaeuropa; Manifesta 11; and Art Basel. Together, they were laureates of La Becque’s 2021 program and the Cité Internationale des Arts residency in Paris in 2024. In March 2025, they will debut their play We Don’t Live Here Anymore at New Theater Hollywood in Los Angeles.

Thank you to Christchurch City Council, Toi Ōtautahi and Toi Auaha for generously supporting this exhibition and related events.