A surface is only as hard as its pores
40 min performative lecture
2017
A surface is only as hard as its pores is a story of house plants, colonialism, and the entangled webs of exclusion that permeate US immigration policy. Staged as reminiscent of a TED talk, this performance questions and complicates our relationships to plants while drawing corollaries between the current US political stance on immigration and the legacies of colonialism that permeate the domestic, social, and political realities of today. Drawing on the archive of photographic postcards that emerged from within the colonial era of categorization, viewers were handed replicas of postcards at the end of the performance in which they could respond to the work and offer constructive criticism. Each iteration of the work would consider previous feedback as a material act of exchange borne from the performative moment and enables the work to grow.
video documentation forthcoming
Performance photographs were taken by the Chicago Theater Marathon and Chicago Home Theater Festival. Ephemeral photographs and postcards taken by the artist.