Shape of Distance was created in response to the work Deszi II by Gahanian born artist El Anatsui. It is part of a two year project in partnership with the Akron Art Museum and funded by a Knight Foundation Arts Challenge award. The Knight Arts Challenge supports artistic innovation in audience engagement. In my research for this piece I read that El Anatsui talks about his work as “A kind of data that needs to be interacted with. He is interested in the experience of others in bringing his work to life.” I love that he is open to how people interact with and interpret his work. It is very much a dance perspective and GroundWorks philosophy. How each of us brings their background and experience to the experience of the work. Connection is central to art of all disciplines.The ways we discover, sometime lose and seek to maintain, connection to our ideas, emotions, our purpose and to each other had great meaning for me as I created in response to El Anatsui’s magnificent work.