FORENSICS C (SPEAK/DON'T SPEAK) (2009)
a solo performance-installation
Young women in the public eye—actresses, pop singers, reality TV stars—make their living through elaborate displays of emotion. Crying on cue, wandering the streets half-clothed with frenzied expressions, and offering tearful apologies all increase a celebrity’s worth on the global image market. If women’s work is considered to be domestic labor, then girl’s work is this performance of “authentic” emotion. Girls (of any chronological age) can rise to the top through a skillfully executed emotional bender.
Forensics C (speak/don’t speak) is a solo performance that explores the relationship between young femininity and spectacular affect. Drawing inspiration from both 1970s body art and post-millennial gossip rags, I combine half-sung/half-spoken found text (including the lyrics of Lindsay Lohan’s “Speak” and Gwen Stefani’s “Don’t Speak”) with a mechanically repeated action: the popping of small water balloons attached to my clothing. The piece ends when all 10 balloons have been popped. Both cheeky and very, very earnest, I deliver my monologue to a camera on a tripod in front of me.
Forensics C was performed at INOVA Arts Center on the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee campus as part of the Sum Total Faculty show (2009) as well as at the Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center Artists and Models exhibition in Buffalo, NY (2010).
Forensics C (speak/don’t speak) is a solo performance that explores the relationship between young femininity and spectacular affect. Drawing inspiration from both 1970s body art and post-millennial gossip rags, I combine half-sung/half-spoken found text (including the lyrics of Lindsay Lohan’s “Speak” and Gwen Stefani’s “Don’t Speak”) with a mechanically repeated action: the popping of small water balloons attached to my clothing. The piece ends when all 10 balloons have been popped. Both cheeky and very, very earnest, I deliver my monologue to a camera on a tripod in front of me.
Forensics C was performed at INOVA Arts Center on the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee campus as part of the Sum Total Faculty show (2009) as well as at the Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center Artists and Models exhibition in Buffalo, NY (2010).