Andromeda and the Milky Way is a durational performance that unfolds through drawing, movement and time. Two performers, positioned opposite each other, remain anchored to their own points, drawing repeatedly across a field of paper in charcoal. From these fixed positions, each traces arcs that extend outward from the body, gradually forming expanding orbital fields that approach and eventually meet on the surface. The work develops through duration, proximity, relation and repetition, producing a dense accumulation of marks that records the reach and limits of each body in space, while the performers themselves remain at a distance.

The work takes its title from the projected merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, an event predicted to occur in approximately four billion years. While the two galaxies will eventually coalesce, the likelihood of individual stars or planets colliding is extremely small. This paradox—convergence without impact—structures the work. Through contained, repetitive action, the performers trace cycles of approach and divergence, proximity and withdrawal, translating astronomical movement into a human, relational register.

Across its iterations, the work exists as performance, drawing and moving image. The resulting forms hold traces of duration, friction and relation, positioning drawing as both action and aftermath.

In this installation, the 2022 video of Andromeda and the Milky Way was presented at The Lock-Up, Newcastle, as part of the exhibition Radical Slowness. Installed on a platform that echoed the structure of the original performance, the work translated the durational action into a spatial, screen-based encounter. Presented at an enlarged, heroic scale, the performers were rendered in a heightened, almost monumental register, shifting the viewer’s relation to the work. In this context, the performance is encountered at a remove, where the intimacy of the live action is recast through scale and the distance of the screen.

In this installation, the 2022 video of Andromeda and the Milky Way was presented at The Lock-Up, Newcastle, as part of the exhibition Radical Slowness. Installed on a platform that echoed the structure of the original performance, the work translated the durational action into a spatial, screen-based encounter. Presented at an enlarged, heroic scale, the performers were rendered in a heightened, almost monumental register, shifting the viewer’s relation to the work. In this context, the performance is encountered at a remove, where the intimacy of the live action is recast through scale and the distance of the screen.