Jordan Rosenow
Hand Washing Movement NYC

1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
April 18, 2020 - April 23, 2020



I am spending quarantine with my girlfriend in our apartment in the Financial District, New York. New York City is being labeled the epicenter for this pandemic in the United States. Cases in the US are now the highest globally. Currently 100,500 cases have been reported in the US with 1,546 deaths. However, due to a lack of testing, we know the infection rate to be significantly higher. My partner and I both became sick with the coronavirus mid-March and our symptoms left a week later. We are grateful to return to full health and our hearts are with everyone who is being affected by this crisis. Today, Friday, March 27th, was the first time we have left the apartment since. The footage was taken midday on a Friday when the streets would normally be packed with hustling people. I filmed in five locations within four blocks of our apartment: Broadway St, Battery Park City, Oculus World Trade Center, the Federal Reserve, and our building rooftop. This movement is thinking about handwashing as both repetitive choreography and, along with isolation, our main defense against this deadly virus. This work was inspired by Yvonne Rainer, Hand Movie (1966).

     –Jordan Rosenow




Hand Washing Movement NYC will be projected each evening after dark, visible directly from the street.

If you're interested in doing more, the New York Blood Center is asking those recovered from COVID-19 to come forward and donate plasma so they can treat as many patients as possible. New York and Chicago are also in critical need of blood, platelets, and plasma donations from the general population. A donation can save up to three lives. For more information and booking appointments visit: nybc.org (New York) or vitalant.org (Illinois, and elsewhere).

Jordan Rosenow is a visual and performance artist who focuses on the relationships of materials and movement through a queer, feminist lens using simple gestures such as touching, bending, leaning and standing. Her choreography is exploring the overlap between dance and sculpture by performing stillness and repetitive movements. Rosenow is from Minneapolis, MN and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Rosenow has exhibited at The White Page, Rochester Art Center, ACRE Projects, The Soap Factory, and Franconia Sculpture Park. Her performance work was recently presented at Lynden Sculpture Garden and the Walker Art Center. She is the editor of INREVIEW, a free, printed quarterly publication dedicated art criticism in the Twin Cities. For more information, please visit jordanrosenow.com.