X Performances utilises public space as a place of dialogue and negotiation. The public road is a space circumscribed by a social compact that determines interaction. But where the rules of the road are thought to be inviolable, X Performances humanises that space with a vulnerability that delays the enforcement of pure will or the law.
X Performances is a series of performances that began in 2007. Colorfully costumed performers lie on the ground, solo or in groups, making an X with their bodies. The space for this action is typically a busy city street momentarily vacated of traffic when oncoming cars, buses and trucks are stopped by traffic lights. Before the lights change back to green, the performers get up and move quickly off the road.
This work was staged in front of the Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sydney’s busy central business district and outside Redfern Railway station in Sydney, Australia in 2007. In 2008, X Performances was performed in Cologne, Germany and in Dunedin in New Zealand 2009.
Schwenk worked with the architectural firm, tonkin zulaikha greer in Sydney, on a submission for a public performative sculpture, based on a performance of X in the City of Perth.