Travessia: I bequeath you my clothes, not my sketchbook

2018, at Chisenhale Studios, curated by Oana Damir

Performance (1 hour)

This performance emerged from a period of mourning that followed the death of a close friend. Clothes and a sketchbook he bequeathed to me, as his effective remains, became physical material with which I was able to work. The format of the performance referenced rituals practiced by indigenous Brazilian people upon the occasion of death.  I selected excerpts from the text he’d written into his sketchbook to construct a speech that I delivered. I began the performance dressing myself in multiple layers of his clothes. I then removed the clothing and spread the garments across the floor. I, with the help of a group of three other performers, pinned the individual pieces of clothing together on the floor. We carried the clothing to a table upon which four sewing machines had been placed, and then (laboriously for both the performers and the audience) sewed them together to form a single object. As such, the clothes no longer functioned as clothing, serving instead as a metaphor for the body of the deceased. Consistent with indigenous ritual dictating that the body should be carried out of the village,  the clothing was then carried ‘offstage’. Prior to the performance, I had painted two choreographic scenes onto doors, which were engaged as ‘props’ in the work. Subsequent to the performance, the clothing as object was placed upon the doors to construct a sculpture (see image below).