mEDITATIONS ON SADNESS
(CHANCE AND CATHARSIS)
2015
PERFORMATIVE ACTION
PHOTOGRAPHIC +
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
[DURATION: 14:53]
Meditations on Sadness (chance and catharsis) is the first act in a series of quiet diversions, reflecting on the burden of melancholy and the physicality of emotion. These performances for camera are a meeting point of calculated action and unforeseeable circumstance – drawing moments of personal discomfort and fragility into the public sphere through performance and its documentation.
This first Meditation work was produced in the reverberations of a larger durational performance, How the Stars Stand in which I lived in a gallery for 37 days according to time as experienced on Mars. This action, that saw my lived experience separate from the Earth’s solar cycle had left me raw – detached – emotional, living in a heightened yet isolated state where concepts of ‘day’ and ‘night’ were constantly shifting. In the context of these conditions a sudden downpour felt like a celestial reprieve, providing a moment of release and an opportunity for renewal.
Kneeling down on the sidewalk, I let the rain soak me through.