Pneumotherapy II (2020)
[performance / installation]
Pneumotherapy II (2020)
[performance / installation]
Photos by Maria Baranova
Duration: 7 hours
Location: Perrotin, New York, NY, USA
––––––
The second instalment of the '-therapy' series,
Each iteration is presented as an open-ended, non-narrative ritual. Every performance unravels over the course of seven consecutive hours, only six of which are open to the public.
The public is invited to enter and exit at their leisure. The titles are comprised of reconstituted medical jargon. Each piece is thematically focused on a different part of the body.
The resulting composition is informed by both scientific and spiritual interpretations of the human body and all its intrinsic mechanisms.
–––––
Scenography: Marie de Testa
18k gold jockstrap: Chris Habana
Soundscape: (JJ)esus
Lighting: Cheyenne Sykes
Makeup: Bob Scott
Floral installation: Le Fleuriste NYC
Co-produced by Phi Studios, Daphnée Lanternier, Elena Seegers and Simon de Dreuille
Location: Perrotin, New York, NY, USA
––––––
The second instalment of the '-therapy' series,
Each iteration is presented as an open-ended, non-narrative ritual. Every performance unravels over the course of seven consecutive hours, only six of which are open to the public.
The public is invited to enter and exit at their leisure. The titles are comprised of reconstituted medical jargon. Each piece is thematically focused on a different part of the body.
The resulting composition is informed by both scientific and spiritual interpretations of the human body and all its intrinsic mechanisms.
–––––
Scenography: Marie de Testa
18k gold jockstrap: Chris Habana
Soundscape: (JJ)esus
Lighting: Cheyenne Sykes
Makeup: Bob Scott
Floral installation: Le Fleuriste NYC
Co-produced by Phi Studios, Daphnée Lanternier, Elena Seegers and Simon de Dreuille
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Hæmotherapy I (2019)
[performance / installation]
Photos by Maria Baranova
Duration: 7 hours
Location: Reena Spauling's Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
––––––
Presented as an open-ended ritual, this piece was a long-durational, immersive, sculptural, architectural, culinary and olfactory performance proposition that unravelled over the course of seven consecutive hours. Viewers were invited to attend six of those seven hours. They were welcome to enter and exit at their leisure.
–––––
Scenography: Marie de Testa
Culinary Installation: Yardy World Inc. / DeVonn Francis
18k gold jockstrap: Chris Habana
Soundscape: (JJ)esus
Lighting: Cheyenne Sykes
Makeup: Bob Scott
Location: Reena Spauling's Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
––––––
Presented as an open-ended ritual, this piece was a long-durational, immersive, sculptural, architectural, culinary and olfactory performance proposition that unravelled over the course of seven consecutive hours. Viewers were invited to attend six of those seven hours. They were welcome to enter and exit at their leisure.
–––––
Scenography: Marie de Testa
Culinary Installation: Yardy World Inc. / DeVonn Francis
18k gold jockstrap: Chris Habana
Soundscape: (JJ)esus
Lighting: Cheyenne Sykes
Makeup: Bob Scott
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Saying Grace (2018)
[performance / installation]
Photos by Laura Brichta, Chloé Bellemere & Maria Baranova
Duration: 2.5 hours
Location: The Watermill Center, New York, USA
––––––
This piece was presented by Robert Wilson the Watermill Center's 25th Annual Gala fundraiser event in collaboration with actor Nile Harris.
It consisted of a slow dance between two performers to John Coltrane's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye wearing custom-built virtual reality headsets (provided by Felix & Paul Studio, Montreal) and Yves Saint Laurent couture gowns c. 1970 (curated by Palindrome Paris) and 14k gold grillz. The dance disintegrates into a more abstract movement piece over time, involving slow, sweeping butoh-inspired gestures.
On both headsets and two screens built into the stage, there is a video compilation of dozens of clips of violence against black bodies, police brutality, blackface, lynchings, African and Vodun rituals and gospel singers.
–––––
Clothing research: Palindrome Paris
VR equipment courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios
Location: The Watermill Center, New York, USA
––––––
This piece was presented by Robert Wilson the Watermill Center's 25th Annual Gala fundraiser event in collaboration with actor Nile Harris.
It consisted of a slow dance between two performers to John Coltrane's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye wearing custom-built virtual reality headsets (provided by Felix & Paul Studio, Montreal) and Yves Saint Laurent couture gowns c. 1970 (curated by Palindrome Paris) and 14k gold grillz. The dance disintegrates into a more abstract movement piece over time, involving slow, sweeping butoh-inspired gestures.
On both headsets and two screens built into the stage, there is a video compilation of dozens of clips of violence against black bodies, police brutality, blackface, lynchings, African and Vodun rituals and gospel singers.
–––––
Clothing research: Palindrome Paris
VR equipment courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios
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Nègraissance: Be Alright [Excerpt] (2018)
[performance]
Location : Villa Wenkenhof, Basel, Switzerland
––––––
Excerpt from Nègraissance, a long-durational opera on Black identity.
Performed for Art Basel
Staged, written and performed by Miles Greenberg, featuring Zola Massela & Qkya.
Flowers by Anatomie Fleur Berlin
––––––
Excerpt from Nègraissance, a long-durational opera on Black identity.
Performed for Art Basel
Staged, written and performed by Miles Greenberg, featuring Zola Massela & Qkya.
Flowers by Anatomie Fleur Berlin
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Moonandback (2018)
[performance]
Duration: 45mins
Location: Sowerart Space, Shanghai, China
––––––
For this performance, I consumed two full bottles of wine before entering the space. I then walked out, inebriated, with another seven full bottles.
For 45 minutes, I sang "Summertime," the song I was sung as a lullaby as an infant, and recited some of my own poetry while opening the bottles and drinking another quarter of each.
Ritualistically, I would smash the bottles with a hammer against a stone on a plinth. My feet bleeding over the broken glass, I would continue singing in a crescendo that eventually escalated to a drunken scream until all seven bottles were smashed.
Location: Sowerart Space, Shanghai, China
––––––
For this performance, I consumed two full bottles of wine before entering the space. I then walked out, inebriated, with another seven full bottles.
For 45 minutes, I sang "Summertime," the song I was sung as a lullaby as an infant, and recited some of my own poetry while opening the bottles and drinking another quarter of each.
Ritualistically, I would smash the bottles with a hammer against a stone on a plinth. My feet bleeding over the broken glass, I would continue singing in a crescendo that eventually escalated to a drunken scream until all seven bottles were smashed.
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Chandelier II : Hunting Lodge (2017)
Chandelier III : Plantation (2017)
[performance]
Duration: 3 hours (each)
Location: The Watermill Center, New York, USA
Location: The Watermill Center, New York, USA
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Hands: Giving & Taking Away (2017)
[performance / installation]
Photos by Lovis Ostenrik, Chloé Bellemere & Maria Baranova
Duration: 3 hours
Location: The Watermill Center, New York, USA
––––––
This is a reprise of an earlier work (Sleep Tight, 2015) created for the Watermill Center's 24th Annual Gala in Long Island, New York.
In it, four ten foot-tall bed-like structures were placed around the grounds of the center in pairs. Across them, a thick layer of cellophane was stretched to support the weight of a performer.
The performers were instructed to move minimally and sensitively but at regular intervals, as one might move while asleep.
They would coordinate amongst themselves to make sure there was always one facing up and one facing down to the audience below at all times, occasionally alternating positions.
From hidden speakers plays a spoken word piece called Twos about severing oneself from one's addictions.
The audience is guided to pass below the performers, who, through the cellophane, give the impression of being vacuum-sealed like some sort of packaged meat.
Location: The Watermill Center, New York, USA
––––––
This is a reprise of an earlier work (Sleep Tight, 2015) created for the Watermill Center's 24th Annual Gala in Long Island, New York.
In it, four ten foot-tall bed-like structures were placed around the grounds of the center in pairs. Across them, a thick layer of cellophane was stretched to support the weight of a performer.
The performers were instructed to move minimally and sensitively but at regular intervals, as one might move while asleep.
They would coordinate amongst themselves to make sure there was always one facing up and one facing down to the audience below at all times, occasionally alternating positions.
From hidden speakers plays a spoken word piece called Twos about severing oneself from one's addictions.
The audience is guided to pass below the performers, who, through the cellophane, give the impression of being vacuum-sealed like some sort of packaged meat.
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Nightmare I (2017)
[video & photographs]
Location: Ritz Carlton Hotel, Shanghai, CH
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Sediment (2017)
[video]
Location: Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, CH
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Strange Fruit (2016)
[performance]
[performance]
Photos by Pedram Karimi
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Location: One Undone, Montreal, CA
––––––
This piece was based off of Billie Holiday's song Strange Fruit (hence the title). I attached metres of rope along the ceiling, attaching to beams and doorknobs and trailing off into a single noose dangling in above a wooden chair. A single red light illuminated the space with a projection of the initial film playing in the corner.
Ambient musician ssurfacing created a mix that lasted the duration of the performance based on and sampling Holiday's original recording, mixing in elements from nature.
The performance itself consisted of a butoh-inspired vignette in which I donned black makeup, nude and wearing ropes tied tightly around my torso, neck, face and legs in various interconnected nooses. Sitting on the chair, I slowly and systematically created tensions with my muscles in different parts of my body, pulling on the ropes and tying them to the ones already on my body. Gradually, the ropes made a sort of web around me to which, after around 45 minutes, I begin to give my body weight and use it to lift myself off the chair.
Location: One Undone, Montreal, CA
––––––
This piece was based off of Billie Holiday's song Strange Fruit (hence the title). I attached metres of rope along the ceiling, attaching to beams and doorknobs and trailing off into a single noose dangling in above a wooden chair. A single red light illuminated the space with a projection of the initial film playing in the corner.
Ambient musician ssurfacing created a mix that lasted the duration of the performance based on and sampling Holiday's original recording, mixing in elements from nature.
The performance itself consisted of a butoh-inspired vignette in which I donned black makeup, nude and wearing ropes tied tightly around my torso, neck, face and legs in various interconnected nooses. Sitting on the chair, I slowly and systematically created tensions with my muscles in different parts of my body, pulling on the ropes and tying them to the ones already on my body. Gradually, the ropes made a sort of web around me to which, after around 45 minutes, I begin to give my body weight and use it to lift myself off the chair.
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Amends (2016)
[performance]
[performance]
Duration: 1 hour
Location: Espace Scuderi, Montreal, CA
––––––
Amends was created for Montreal artist Matisse Makwanda's group show centred around the theme of eating.
I entered the space dressed all in white and wearing whiteout contact lenses rendering me nearly blind. I removed my shoes, socks and jewelry and placed in on the ground. I then pulled out a sewing needle, scissors, hammer and nail, laying them on the floor in a row. I then proceeded to violently slash my clothes with the scissors. Next, I pulled out the end of a hidden bobbin of fluorescent orange thread from my mouth and threaded the needle with it, then mended my clothes in as many places as it would hold. I cut the thread and drove the nail through the floorboards in the centre of the gallery. I tied the end of the thread from my mouth to it, then silently weaved my way through the audience, entangling them in the thread still unravelling from my mouth. I made three large rounds of the room, after which everyone was inevitably making contact with the thread.
I made my way back to the centre, cut the thread and once more tied off the end onto the same nail. I then walked back through the space, retracing my steps backwards following the thread. When I get back to the beginning, I sit down, cut the thread, and pull it all back from my spot on the floor.
Location: Espace Scuderi, Montreal, CA
––––––
Amends was created for Montreal artist Matisse Makwanda's group show centred around the theme of eating.
I entered the space dressed all in white and wearing whiteout contact lenses rendering me nearly blind. I removed my shoes, socks and jewelry and placed in on the ground. I then pulled out a sewing needle, scissors, hammer and nail, laying them on the floor in a row. I then proceeded to violently slash my clothes with the scissors. Next, I pulled out the end of a hidden bobbin of fluorescent orange thread from my mouth and threaded the needle with it, then mended my clothes in as many places as it would hold. I cut the thread and drove the nail through the floorboards in the centre of the gallery. I tied the end of the thread from my mouth to it, then silently weaved my way through the audience, entangling them in the thread still unravelling from my mouth. I made three large rounds of the room, after which everyone was inevitably making contact with the thread.
I made my way back to the centre, cut the thread and once more tied off the end onto the same nail. I then walked back through the space, retracing my steps backwards following the thread. When I get back to the beginning, I sit down, cut the thread, and pull it all back from my spot on the floor.
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A+ (2016)
[performance]
[performance]
Photos by Clément Guégan
Duration: Approx. 30mins
Location: Galerie MainLine, Montreal, CA
–––––
This piece was presented at the vernissage of Habeas Corpus, a five day group show of performance art curated by me.
I am covered in black paint wearing only a jockstrap and a black wig, covering my face. There is a red pill of Isentress (a medication prescribed to treat HIV retroactively as a post-exposural prophylaxis) glued to the exposed back of my neck.
Over a loudspeaker, there is a computerized voice reading out a full description of the drugs contraindications, side effects and composition found online. Meanwhile, I crawl out on all fours, the sticker from the pill bottle covering my mouth, and drag myself in twenty-eight large circles in the centre of the space, representing the twenty-eight day treatment. In the middle of the circle is a glass of water, a microphone and a small notebook with the names of everyone I've ever had sexual relations with.
Once I've completed all twenty-eight circles, the voice stops, and I read each of the names in my notebook aloud in reverse chronological order, slapping myself across the face for each one that I regret. I then pick up the glass, swallow the pill with a sip of water and pour the rest on my body. There is now a large black circular stain on the floor from my body paint.
Location: Galerie MainLine, Montreal, CA
–––––
This piece was presented at the vernissage of Habeas Corpus, a five day group show of performance art curated by me.
I am covered in black paint wearing only a jockstrap and a black wig, covering my face. There is a red pill of Isentress (a medication prescribed to treat HIV retroactively as a post-exposural prophylaxis) glued to the exposed back of my neck.
Over a loudspeaker, there is a computerized voice reading out a full description of the drugs contraindications, side effects and composition found online. Meanwhile, I crawl out on all fours, the sticker from the pill bottle covering my mouth, and drag myself in twenty-eight large circles in the centre of the space, representing the twenty-eight day treatment. In the middle of the circle is a glass of water, a microphone and a small notebook with the names of everyone I've ever had sexual relations with.
Once I've completed all twenty-eight circles, the voice stops, and I read each of the names in my notebook aloud in reverse chronological order, slapping myself across the face for each one that I regret. I then pick up the glass, swallow the pill with a sip of water and pour the rest on my body. There is now a large black circular stain on the floor from my body paint.
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[ documentation unavailable ]
Confidentiality (2016)
[performance]
[performance]
Duration: 25mins
Location: Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, CH
––––––
This piece was performed for Manifesta 11 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, Switzerland.
The space was filled with smoke, the lights dimmed and flickering with the sound of my breathing recorded during my sleep from the night before amplified on loudspeakers. MRI images of my brain were projected onto a screen above the stage. Painted white with white coloured contact lenses to block out my irises, I got up on stage, stripped naked and stretched out horizontally on a pillow to evoke a Freudian sofa. I was attached by two nylon threads, one around my neck and the other through my earlobe, pulling me in opposite directions.
I then lit a cigarette and held it above my body to allow the ashes to drop onto my bare skin as I spoke into the microphone every single secret, regret and private matter that came to mind from my personal life. At the end of my last cigarette, I burned both threads with the lit end of it and put it out on my own chest.
Photographic documentation was not permitted in the space.
Location: Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, CH
––––––
This piece was performed for Manifesta 11 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, Switzerland.
The space was filled with smoke, the lights dimmed and flickering with the sound of my breathing recorded during my sleep from the night before amplified on loudspeakers. MRI images of my brain were projected onto a screen above the stage. Painted white with white coloured contact lenses to block out my irises, I got up on stage, stripped naked and stretched out horizontally on a pillow to evoke a Freudian sofa. I was attached by two nylon threads, one around my neck and the other through my earlobe, pulling me in opposite directions.
I then lit a cigarette and held it above my body to allow the ashes to drop onto my bare skin as I spoke into the microphone every single secret, regret and private matter that came to mind from my personal life. At the end of my last cigarette, I burned both threads with the lit end of it and put it out on my own chest.
Photographic documentation was not permitted in the space.
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Two-Thousand Eight-Hundred Fourteen Approximations (2016)
[performance]
[performance]
Photos by Fiona Loseth & Val Winkl
Duration: 3.5 hours.
Location: Matahari Loft, Montreal, CA
––––––
Two Thousand Eight-Hundred Fourteen Approximations was commissioned by experimental music collective, No Exist, to be performed as a part of their show at Montreal's Matahari Art Loft.
In the performance, I enter the space painted white head-to-toe in a pair of white geta and carrying a canvas bag filled with rice. I place a quartz crystal cluster on the floor and begin to place individual grains of rice, end to end, in a sort of mandala around it. Once I've made several contiguous rings around the crystal, I continue the trail into the space, weaving around furniture and through the audience, dividing the space with meticulously placed borders.
Inspired by Japanese butoh, the piece derives various elements from Zen and Tibetan buddhist practices, traditions and mythology.
Location: Matahari Loft, Montreal, CA
––––––
Two Thousand Eight-Hundred Fourteen Approximations was commissioned by experimental music collective, No Exist, to be performed as a part of their show at Montreal's Matahari Art Loft.
In the performance, I enter the space painted white head-to-toe in a pair of white geta and carrying a canvas bag filled with rice. I place a quartz crystal cluster on the floor and begin to place individual grains of rice, end to end, in a sort of mandala around it. Once I've made several contiguous rings around the crystal, I continue the trail into the space, weaving around furniture and through the audience, dividing the space with meticulously placed borders.
Inspired by Japanese butoh, the piece derives various elements from Zen and Tibetan buddhist practices, traditions and mythology.
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You Without (2015)
[performance]
[performance]
Duration: 2 hours.
Location: Glass Door Gallery, Montreal, CA
––––––
You Without was a piece commissioned for and presented at Under The Covers: A Show About Sleep. The piece consists of a wooden structure, a white sheet, an audio component and ceiling projection. I laid on the platform covered by the sheet, immobile, for two hours in the gallery space, while the first chapters of Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment played on audiobook, slowed down to half-speed. The morning of the performance, I recorded the sky and juxtaposed the reversed footage with a video of my hand striking matches and letting them burn down to my fingertips. This video was projected on the ceiling above my body.
Location: Glass Door Gallery, Montreal, CA
––––––
You Without was a piece commissioned for and presented at Under The Covers: A Show About Sleep. The piece consists of a wooden structure, a white sheet, an audio component and ceiling projection. I laid on the platform covered by the sheet, immobile, for two hours in the gallery space, while the first chapters of Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment played on audiobook, slowed down to half-speed. The morning of the performance, I recorded the sky and juxtaposed the reversed footage with a video of my hand striking matches and letting them burn down to my fingertips. This video was projected on the ceiling above my body.
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Sleep Tight (2015)
[performance]
[performance]
Photos by Jade Wulfraat
Duration: 1 week (gallery opening hours); 45 hours elapsed.
Location: Galerie C.O.A. Montreal, in collaboration with Studio Beluga and Faux Cadres Canal.
––––––
This piece consists of an eight foot tall elevated structure resembling a bed frame, across which several layers of clear cellophane are stretched. For a week, I slept in the gallery space from opening until closing time. Visitors were be able to walk in and see me from below, blindfolded, deafened by earphones, semi-nude and asleep.
The intention of the piece was to raise questions on privacy and intimacy; in allowing the public to witness one in a state of total sensory deprivation and undress, one completely relinquishes power to the audience. The boundaries of what can/should be seen are rendered ambiguous. The gallery format facilitates a very particular social context in which the public is invited to stare. The subject of their scrutiny is vulnerable, yet unaware of his critics. The installation creates for a one-way mirror effect in which the public is invited to exercise their own innate voyeuristic tendencies at the voluntary expense of the artist.
This piece was paired with a series of sculptures called Seven, a series of plaster bandage casts I made on myself with no release agent. I had to cut each of them off on my own and each was extremely painful to remove. Each one represents one of the seven deadly sins.
Location: Galerie C.O.A. Montreal, in collaboration with Studio Beluga and Faux Cadres Canal.
––––––
This piece consists of an eight foot tall elevated structure resembling a bed frame, across which several layers of clear cellophane are stretched. For a week, I slept in the gallery space from opening until closing time. Visitors were be able to walk in and see me from below, blindfolded, deafened by earphones, semi-nude and asleep.
The intention of the piece was to raise questions on privacy and intimacy; in allowing the public to witness one in a state of total sensory deprivation and undress, one completely relinquishes power to the audience. The boundaries of what can/should be seen are rendered ambiguous. The gallery format facilitates a very particular social context in which the public is invited to stare. The subject of their scrutiny is vulnerable, yet unaware of his critics. The installation creates for a one-way mirror effect in which the public is invited to exercise their own innate voyeuristic tendencies at the voluntary expense of the artist.
This piece was paired with a series of sculptures called Seven, a series of plaster bandage casts I made on myself with no release agent. I had to cut each of them off on my own and each was extremely painful to remove. Each one represents one of the seven deadly sins.
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Auguste (2015)
[performance]
[performance]
Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Location: Centerfold IV
––––––
Standing on a platform, I would make casts of various body parts in plaster bandage, then, before they would have time to dry, I would proceed to cut each piece off and toss it aside, only to cast a new one immediately after. I repeated this action for two and a half hours, until nightfall.
Location: Centerfold IV
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Standing on a platform, I would make casts of various body parts in plaster bandage, then, before they would have time to dry, I would proceed to cut each piece off and toss it aside, only to cast a new one immediately after. I repeated this action for two and a half hours, until nightfall.
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Photos by Nicholas Gertler
Chandelier (2015)
[performance]
[performance]
Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Location: Studio Untitled, Montreal
–––––
I hang from the ceiling, semi-nude, in a dark space holding three lit candles at midnight. Below me is a table with four other candles, as well as five bottles of Prosecco, thirty glasses and a cheese platter. There is a letter posted to the door instructing guests to help themselves. Hanging for over an hour, blindfolded and in silence, I attempt to fulfill the purpose of a chandelier; at once a decorative object and the primary source of light in the space. The host becomes part of the infrastructure, the guests become the hosts, the dynamic evolves over time.
The first part of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite plays on a gramophone in the corner until it reaches the end. No one lifts the needle. For the rest of the performance, it fills the space with a resonant white noise.
In the beginning, guests arrive and are silent. They eventually whisper among each other, pour themselves a glass and gradually begin to forget that I'm there. Meanwhile, I remain suspended and it becomes increasingly painful. Through my blindfold, I see nothing but the light of the flames I hold in my hands and feet. Molten wax drips freely on my naked body and the leather harnesses dig into my skin, causing bruising, numbness and cuts with excruciating pain. I endure this pain until I hear the last bottle open, then finally blow out the candles.
Location: Studio Untitled, Montreal
–––––
I hang from the ceiling, semi-nude, in a dark space holding three lit candles at midnight. Below me is a table with four other candles, as well as five bottles of Prosecco, thirty glasses and a cheese platter. There is a letter posted to the door instructing guests to help themselves. Hanging for over an hour, blindfolded and in silence, I attempt to fulfill the purpose of a chandelier; at once a decorative object and the primary source of light in the space. The host becomes part of the infrastructure, the guests become the hosts, the dynamic evolves over time.
The first part of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite plays on a gramophone in the corner until it reaches the end. No one lifts the needle. For the rest of the performance, it fills the space with a resonant white noise.
In the beginning, guests arrive and are silent. They eventually whisper among each other, pour themselves a glass and gradually begin to forget that I'm there. Meanwhile, I remain suspended and it becomes increasingly painful. Through my blindfold, I see nothing but the light of the flames I hold in my hands and feet. Molten wax drips freely on my naked body and the leather harnesses dig into my skin, causing bruising, numbness and cuts with excruciating pain. I endure this pain until I hear the last bottle open, then finally blow out the candles.