The rising popularity of bouldering has created more opportunity for the public to understand the many facets of sport climbing; unlike traditional outdoor rock climbing, indoor bouldering allows more room for dialogue and exchange. Discussions of matters such as climbing routes, techniques and complementary physical training fosters companionship and encouragement, which in turn motivates climbers to push their limits.
This experimental installation explores the power of companionship and encouragement: is climbing with others more productive than silently enduring the sweat and pain on your own? Through hangboarding, a most common training technique in sport climbing, we challenge players to discover their bodies’ “usefulness”, and explore the “useful” and “useless” domains of companionship and encouragement in terms of self-performance.