Sweat and Tears
2004
Performance
Artist statement:
This very short video previews SWEAT AND TEARS, a three hours performance work that finalized a weeklong workshop with Jan Fabre at the Salzburg Summer Art Academy in 2004. I performed a work using a row of wooden lockers and the floor in the room. The idea was to create sweat that I could collect from my body to use as another medium for creating drawings in part of the performance.
I choreographed a pattern of entering and exiting the lockers to cause sweat from physical exertion. There were 22 rows for as many lockers; the first row required me to enter every locker and the consecutive ones continued an accumulative skipping pattern until I only had to access the two end lockers. A sign printed, “ACCESS DENIED” was taped onto lockers inaccessible for entry.
As I ran from one locker to another, I followed an arrangement of dots placed on the floor that mapped my direction. I wanted to compliment this Sisyphus action by developing a method of producing mental sweat, so I memorized phrases from books that were scattered around the floor on wooden planks. As these books came into my path, I would randomly choose a phrase or sentence to read out loud until I could recite it from memory. Once enclosed into the next locker I would recite the text loudly through the door. As sweat developed on my body, I would go to planks stationed at different points on the floor that had art materials. Using a small piece of paper, I collected moisture in my armpits and lower back (physical exertion), and from the palms of my hands (mental exertion). With pencil or paint, I lightly drew sinuous lines around the perimeter of the collected sweat to trace its remains on the paper. Along the perimeter of these shapes, I added in a graphic icon symbolizing equality, balance, and harmony. Having both elements on paper combined the fragility and contemplation of being a human at peace. I would tie frayed and knotted strings that I handled while reciting phrases from memory in the lockers. If there was an audience member nearby, I would give the drawing now wrapped up as an amulet to them as a token of thanks.
After about 2 1/2 hours of executing two and a half cycles of this entire practice, I started to cry in one of the lockers on one end of the room. A colleague nearby who had been collecting tears for her piece, came over to console me once I exited the locker. After this happened for a few minutes, I continued the process at a slower and calmer pace for the final half hour.
