SECRETS performance
Performed at Massachusetts College of Art in the SIM department in 2011.
Audience enters a room on the MassArt campus lit in the corners with black lights and a red wash with a florescent yellow outline of a body on the floor. Prior to the piece people have been instructed to lie together on the floor, avoiding any marked off areas. After everyone was lying down I began speaking from inside the caged closet with my fingers through the door. I read the following spoken word piece: Panic, all there ever is is panic
Memories of hands, faces, betrayal and loss It is safe here Inside this room Inside this building Inside this institution Lies, Lies, Lies, Lies Just look around This place it stinks of their failure If walls had faces they would only be of disgust Instead I must wear it On my lips, on my sleeve, on all the places he ever touched Panic bore a hole in me that night When strangers unwanted fingers violated my body and mind And they helped the hole remain hollow and the panic spread like a cancer Now after two years in deafening silence my soul screams out for the truth For what he did to me in that very spot For so much of my life I can never get back For how they pretended it wasn’t real, no here, not one of ours, not him For acknowledging the guilt and setting him free For caring only for their reputation while I slowly came apart For all the hushed words behind doors Well, Fuck you, I know what is really going on here. Money, Bureaucracy, Politics, The Man, Our sick society Not sure which one really put its fingers inside me that night or who rapes my mind over and over. They and him are becoming one and the same. And I will not let them all destroy me As others have fell victim I will speak for those who can’t It is not safe here Inside this building Inside this institution Just look around and see the truth |
SELF RESTRAINT performance
Performed at Massachusetts College of Art in the SIM program and again for The Theater Offensive, both in Boston, MA in 2009.
For each performance I would sit in front of the audience on the floor with my legs out in front of me and pierce down each leg with hypodermic needles while maintaining rhythmic breathing. After all the needles where in place I corseted my legs together with red ribbon around the needles and tied it off at the knees. Once I had finished I sat and breathed for a few moments then untied the ribbon, undid the corseting, and slowly worked backwards. During the SIM performance two live feed cameras were focused on either side of my legs, showing a close up of the piercing being done on the adjacent wall. |
POLICING BODIES performance
Performed at the Massachusetts College of Art in the SIM department in 2010.
For this performance I stripped naked in front of the audience and wrapped myself with police taped and secured it with surgical staples, which are often used by individuals that practice BDSM. The last to be secured was a piece across my mouth stapled in each cheek. Once I was done I stood silent for a moment, looked at the audience and with the scissors I was holding behind my back cut the tape over my mouth down the middle and asked, “any questions?” |
RED TAPE performance
Performed at the “Fens”, the area near the Boston community gardens know for anonymous gay sex. Piece done in 2011.
For this piece I used a large red ribbon and tied it across one of the major walking paths through the reeds. Right after the ribbon went up several people came down the path from within the reeds and under the ribbon. |
TRAUMA performance
Performed at Massachusetts College of Art in the SIM program in 2011.
This piece was performed with me naked with thin black ribbon attached with needles to my skin and thicker red ribbon over my breasts, pubic area, and mouth with “NO!” repeated on it in various hand-painted lettering. I was lying on the floor in the corner of the room in a fetal like position, with one light on me from across the room. When the audience entered the room I was sobbing uncontrollably and each person was instructed to place a tea light by me during the performance. My makeup ran down my face and I continued to cry and flinch even after the audience had all placed their lights and been seated for about five or so minutes until the lights went down. |