Sam Scheuermann

A table is covered by a large square mirror. A second mirror on top, slowly being manipulated by a performer, explores its surroundings. Around her, three performers observe the reflections through cameras connected to screens. As both mirror and camera lens keep searching for what it is that they want to hold, perceptions start to modulate. There’s a sense of ongoing deconstruction. Light gets shot, the space is captured. Our gaze focused in fragmentation.

The mirror set-up is an exploratory, site-responsive apparatus that examines the construction of our perception by observing observation itself. Navigating the mechanics of eyes, lenses, perspective and framing, we immerse ourselves in a gradually unraveling composition, orchestration and live montage of view and attention.

This performance-installation is part of Sam’s broader research in the framework of DAS Theatre, exploring the relational dynamics between the visible and the visual. Through various performative set-ups and different modes of spectatorship, she examines how we orient ourselves in a fragmented world and our strategies for negotiating impermanence. Refusing to say goodbye, we navigate and adapt to the fleeting nature of the now.

‘When tuning a radio, we are navigating noise with something we can potentially recognize – a word, a melody, a rhythm. I’m not interested in eliminating the noise. I’m interested in the act of tuning itself, the act of orientation amidst the chaos we experience.’

Sam Scheuermann (1994, Tilburg NL) is a director, performer, photographer, and urban practitioner based in Amsterdam. Delving into the mechanisms behind perception, her performative set-ups investigate the relational dynamics between being and appearing. Adopting a site-responsive approach, she integrates spatial, social, and temporal specifics into each iteration, making every proposal a moment on its own, tied to past and future variations. By examining different modes of spectatorship, she explores seeming contradictions, between the live and the mediated, 2D and 3D, stage and backstage, assembling performances and installations that reclaim space for multiplicity, connection, and fluidity.

@samscheuermann
https://www.samscheuermann.com/