BARNETT COHEN

BEND TIME

with GALEN SWORDS

Touch is a continuum, a sequence of gestures detached from time and space. While I composed the poem embedded in bend time prior to the pandemic, it feels additionally relevant now. With the unfortunate and notable exception of the many people who are suffering abuse and death at the hands of others with whom they are forced to quarantine, shared touches are sorely missed. Whether platonic or amorous or sexual or illicit, hands hold intuitive learning about who we are and what we want. Hands reify desire; they direct and tame it. Galen and I have collaborated in the past and, for this piece, we traded quick videos back and forth on our phones in an attempt to articulate the echo of touch, how it can span the distance of our lives.

Barnett Cohen originally received formal theatrical training, with an emphasis on breath and vocal work, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He then embarked on a career as a visual artist, making performances and paintings that collectively serve as meditations on the space between thought and self and between self and the body. He has exhibited work and presented performances at numerous venues including Redcat, JOAN, LAXART, Pieter, Neutra VDL House, Mast on Fig, 365 Mission, Human Resources (all in Los Angeles), JDJ (New York), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), City Limits (Oakland). In 2021, he will present a new suite of paintings at JDJ. Cohen received a BA in English from Vassar College in 2005 and an MFA from CalArts in 2014; he attended Skowhegan in 2013, MacDowell in 2019, and was nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in 2020. www.barnettcohen.com

Galen Swords is a writer and actor living in Los Angeles. She worked with Barnett Cohen before in his piece SOMETHINNNGISALWAYSSSWRONGGG and is thrilled to work with him again. You can see her in short films, including the Thirsty series debuting June 2020. She studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater and has performed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. She is also an inclusivity activist and diversity change-agent striving for equality among all races and genders. She thanks her family and friends for all the love and support.

@barnettcohen / @geiss_cube / @jdj.theicehouse