‘Suspended Limbs and Liquid Spines’, Kennedy Debuts ‘Both’ at Artists Space

Richard Kennedy, dressed in camouflage-print sweatpants and a beanie cap, began his new ballet, Both, by crossing Artists Space’s long gallery in Lower Manhattan with a long butane lighter in one hand before lighting two pillar candles. The ritual- istic action recast Kennedy from a potentially foreboding figure to a sort of spiritual authority, an apt start to a work that com- mixed violence and self-care, suggesting how misreadings of the former create a need for the latter.