“I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for bringing a production like Tug of War to Billings. It was an incredibly inspiring collaboration that I, and the friends I’ve had the chance to talk to about the show, sincerely hope will be the first of many. I feel like this is exactly the sort of event that the Billings arts culture needs to encourage collaboration, understanding, exploration, growth, expression in our city.”
What’s Next
We will continue to host, collaborate, share, facilitate, but wrapped up a little differently - a lot differently actually. Thank you HaltForce fam! Thank you for saying “yes” to all these projects, ideas, concepts, & “what ifs.” Please support our joyful decision to send HaltForce into the cosmos, the ether, to become a constellation we can gaze upon in the years to come. We appreciate every one of you, and it’s because of ALL of you that we were able to cultivate what it means to be facilitators, guides, hosts, & artists. It’s not so much that HaltForce is dissolving but weaving further into what calls us. Here and now, the work begins. More soon.
When we created HaltForce we were looking to create a container for the different artistic work we did. Both of us were independent contractors in different mediums, spending a lot of time doing paperwork for each business. If we combined our menagerie of art-skills under one entity might we streamline our lives a bit? It was a rather functional inspiration initially, but we thought about our passion for inviting new artists into our community & connecting them with artists who live here full time. By 2017, the official start of HaltForce, we had produced a few projects & found inspiration for researching as many different residency models as possible. The research became an undercurrent in my efforts. I realize now we were not terribly serious about the name of our art collective that would grow & shrink depending on the project. We ended up with HaltForce because we liked that it sounded harsh, unrelated & odd. If you’ve ever watched the Slings & Arrows you may recall a coveted, yet odd marketing company called FrogHammer later found to be owned by an overjoyed con artist. We found some fun in the idea of naming our collective something peculiar & leaned into the oddity rather than take ourselves seriously. Besides, a lot of artists suffer from imposter syndrome so that con artist part really resonated with me. Am I getting away with doing what I love for a living? We did sit with why those words were important to us: halt/force. It was as though we were writing a note to ourselves to not stray from what we each found important in making/sharing art. I found the value in creating pause, sometimes in a shocking way, this led me to research trauma informed art practices because I took the ethical responsibility of creating art in that way to heart. For Mike, he valued the way art can flush/draw someone into a new perspective or give them inspiration to pivot into new ideas/ways of being in the world. That has to do with his innate resilience & how he’s expanding in his personal life/career. So, in a way these two words mashed together were more for us than the public & we’ve taken to heart how those two words have led us to our current work. - Krista.
Words are packed and wound tightly with infinite histories, associations, and individual context; often we're unaware how we've shaped and been shaped by our vocabulary and our regional vernacular ... Attaching memories to the words that tell our stories and resonate with our understanding of the world.
HaltForce is the pairing of two opposing actions: stillness and movement. As artists we are inspired by the initially jarring quality of these words together, they both have sharp sounding qualities with descending accents. Together they're perhaps unsettling or unattractive. How have these words lived in our lives? Our stories? And upon further reflection, 'halt' and 'force' became words that defined an artistic process and a challenge to create work that allowed both to exist.
HALT
/hôlt/ An abrupt stop or suspension of movement
What abruptly stops us? Or suspends us? While the word halt may incline the imagination towards limitations or road blocks, it can also comprise moments of beauty, or awe, moments that suspend us from our daily tasks - a pause. Does 'halt' imply that motion preceded a suspension, or that motion will return?
FORCE
/fôrs/ strength energy, to make a way through
The push and pull of interaction are the transactions of force. That energy and strength can come from outside ourselves or it can be cultivated from within. If force suggests movement, action, it can also reflect the movement of an energy moving through. A new path.
We believe that each of us is an artist if we stop to consider the creative and sustaining qualities of intentional art making and life living. The actions, thoughts, and intentions we set into motion each day are just as important as the masterpieces we cherish in galleries and museums. The difference? The precise collection that is you in this moment is never to be repeated again - as ephemeral as the star dust we’ve come from and all the more reason to revel in the composition that is only you. You are Art too.