PLEASE. STAY. TOUCH. Jess Curtis Experiments with GRAVITY – Abby Crain: Activation Stage Programs

@ • About • Event Details • About the Artists • Plan Your Visit • RESERVE SPACE PLEASE. STAY. TOUCH. JESS CURTIS EXPERIMENTS WITH GRAVITY –  ABBY CRAIN: ACTIVATION STAGE PROGRAMS PRESENTED BY FORT MASON ART The exhibition PLEASE. STAY. TOUCH. Jess Curtis Experiments with GRAVITY includes an Activation Stage led by artists-in-residence whom Curtis mentored. Each artist serves as a curator-facilitator-performer for events, performances, and happenings that engage deeply with Curtis’s legacy and archive. Each artist presents a program that also extends Curtis’s commitment to inclusive, innovative performance practice and embodied presence. ABOVE: Jess Curtis. Photo: Robbie Sweeny. TOP OF PAGE: Photo: Sven Hagolani EVENT DETAILS Saturday, July 18, 2026 Pitched Rendering 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Store House Gallery See below for reservation link. Abby Crain invites movement artist Tiffany Taylor to join her in a live sonic/vocal transcription and singing of the Please. Stay. Touch. exhibition.   Sunday, July 19, 2026 “The Book of Apparitions: navigating absence through objects” with Lorena Marín and Erasmo Pantoja 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. See below for reservation link. “The language of the dead,” writes Haytham El-Wardany, “is that of the tiniest imperishable life forms, persistently sending signals, even from beneath the earth.” Writing can be an extension of the body, and also a form of reading, finding ways to connect with what is missing, to invoke apparitions. What objects around us can help us read the signals from these “imperishable life forms?” How can we connect with what is no longer present?  Crain invites participants to bring an object through which they feel the presence or signals of someone or something missing from this world. In bringing our attention to these objects participants create writings and drawings that explore relationships with absence. Mourn the loss of loved ones by making a special book to honor them.   Friday, July 24, 2026 sublunary, sublunary, sublime, sublime with Abby Crain and Styles Alexander; audio description by Rachael Dichter 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Store House Gallery  NOTE: Fort Mason Night Market happens 5:00 p.m. to 1000 p.m. campus-wide; limited parking See below for reservation link. Abby Crain writes, “The body is thinking this through – both muddy and astral. Durational performance collaboration.”  Saturday, July 25, 2026 gravity is a field; i move beside you – moving / the archive / being moved / the group / sifting / panning for gold / transmutation / incipience with Abby Crain 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Store House Gallery See below for reservation link. Abby Crain writes, “Score for eight performers //  this unfolds over time // particulate matter // this is not a reduction // we are on the edge of the ocean // the day becomes night // the night opens up.” Come together to explore themes of loss and healing. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Abby Crain (she/her) “works through transposition of the processes of dancing / dance making / the studio / performance making, into the practice of the essay / the poem / the story / the classroom, and vice versa.” Her work is an ongoing, multidisciplinary effort to take note of / recognize that which is perceived or awakened via sensation, experience, memory, and dreams through formats of writing, dancing, reading, pedagogy, and performance.  Tiffany Taylor is a disabled queer dancer whose practice is informed by her blindness. She uses performance and advocacy work to educate others on the social model of disability and challenge perceptions surrounding ableist practices in performance spaces. Her training includes a B.A. in Theatre from Adrian College; the Access Acting Academy training for blind and low-vision actors; and the Axis Dance Company Choreography and Performance Lab. Tiffany Taylor (continued). She has been seen as a performer and collaborator in the pieces (In)Visible and Sight Unseen with GRAVITY. Taylor serves on the Boar…