The Boycean double-bind: Exquisite Tension as a pedagogy of free play

At first glance, Exquisite Tension (2005) may look like one of Boyce’s most unassuming works. When viewing the 4-minute video work for the first time, one is confronted by an apparently casual rendition of a simple ritualised action, yet set in a scene with a combination of actions unfamiliar to us as an everyday experience. In it, the hands of the artist plait the hair of performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and curator Adelaide Bannerman, friends to Boyce but perhaps strangers to each other, where the latter is invited to be a stand-in for the artist during the recording of the work.