The Vis-à-Vis Society was founded in a year that felt like 1957 by Drs. Ink and Owning (aka Sierra Nelson and Rachel Kessler, who began collaborating in 1998 as co-founders of literary performance art group The Typing Explosion with Sarah Paul Ocampo). They are frequently joined by their associate, Dr. Eamer (aka Anne Bradfield, prop wrangler and Love Conductor), who for example, contributes to “100 Rooms: A Bridge Motel Project.”
Using a core practice of interactive performances gathering data from live audiences, the Vis-à-Vis Society has performed and created installations across the nation, including at the Frye Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Hedreen Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Bumbershoot Festival, Lo-Fi Festival at Smoke Farm, Hugo House, NEPO 5K Don’t Run, ARTSparks, Bridge Motel Project, Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour, Sound Transit Capitol Hill Art Wall Project, and Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space.
Their feature-length statistical musicals We Are You and Hello Again Hello were commissioned for Northwest Film Forum’s Live at the Film Forum series. Their books include Desire and Flotation Devices and Who Are We? with a 7-inch record, and their collaborative poems and poem-surveys have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Jackstraw Writers Anthology, Pilot Magazine, Drift Magazine, Wanting Is Easier Than Having, and Rivet, among others. Dedicated to the poetic analysis of the everyday, the Vis-à-Vis Society tenderly takes the poetic pulse of every audience it meets.
Find them at facebook.com/VisaVisSociety.