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S.O.S. (Save Our Skin)Performance, Video
2022
Performed while in residence at Wave Farm in Acra, NY with my artist duo, Wetware Instruments.
Video premiere at Open Air Media Festival
at Public Space
One in Iowa City, IA.
Included in the group
exhibition, This Mortal Coil, at the Landmark
College Fine Arts Gallery in Putney, Vermont. Curated
by Professor Samuel Rowlett.
Video documentation, 11m34s,
Password: sospassword https://vimeo.com/835100391?share=copy
Artist Statement: What is the
use of a cry for help
if no one is listening? What good is an S.O.S. when no
one can understand the signal? While in residence at Wave Farm, I saw the
artist group Type A’s installation Barrier, an S.O.S. waveform built out of
concrete barriers mimicking the “the imposition of perceived safety that
characterized the American urban landscape during the years following the
attacks of September 11, 2001.” I thought the work was funny because it is
completely illegible from the ground. Thinking
of Pope L’s concept of “verticality”, I performed an injection within
this site to translate the work in order to talk
about the attack on trans rights in the United States. When I performed this work in 2022, 174 bills were introduced across
state houses in the
United States which seek to limit the rights of trans people and 26 passed.
When this
S.O.S. (Save Our Skin) premiered in June 2023,
500 bills across
49 states were introduced
and 43 had passed.
Image Description: Censored video still
from the performance at Wave Farm, 2022.