02 . 04 . 2022
TREAD/MILL at the Aspen Art Museum
Performance by writer, artist, editor and facilitator Imani Mason Jordan drawing from the history of the penal treadmill, which was utilized as a tool of punishment in British prisons and in the colonies, and tackling themes of material culture, labor, sweat, carceral logics, surveillance, endurance and orality.
Across two 19-minute chapters, the performance includes a recitation of Frederic Rzewski’s 1974 minimalist composition “Coming Together”, which repurposes a text written by Sam Melville, one of the leaders of the 1971 Attica Prison Rebellion. The first iteration of TREAD/MILL [WIP] was presented at Somerset House Studios in 2021 with sound by Felix Taylor, and design support and documentation by Joseph June Bond and Rabz Lansiquot.