Island Performance: May Joseph

SPE­CIAL EVENT JULY 27, 1 – 3PM: MEET THE ARTIST

Envi­ron­men­tal per­for­mance artist May Joseph chore­o­graphs site-spe­cif­ic, dura­tional move­ment events at the junc­tures of land and sea. She uses per­for­mance, ges­ture, dance, voice, and move­ment as tools to explore cli­mate aes­thet­ics and the habi­tats and his­to­ries of islands. Joseph views arch­i­pel­a­gos as liv­ing bios­pheres affect­ed by human impact. She has curat­ed over twen­ty-four ocean-cen­tered per­for­mances address­ing water pol­i­tics in New York City and coastal regions world­wide. For the past fif­teen years, Joseph has revived for­got­ten coastal knowl­edge through per­for­mances at var­i­ous sites, includ­ing piers, rivers, islands, and beach­es. Her work includes loca­tions such as the Maas Riv­er in Rot­ter­dam, the Indi­an Ocean at Cochin, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Hud­son Riv­er in Man­hat­tan. Joseph’s per­for­mances aim to under­stand cli­mate change and ocean con­scious­ness, with walk­ing as a cen­tral method­olog­i­cal tool in her practice.

Pratt Insti­tute’s Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion is one of the 2024 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence.