Performance, Video
11m34s
2002
Link to Work Sample (password: sospassword)
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 S.O.S. (Save Our Skin) premiered in June 2023, 500 bills across 49 states were introduced and 43 had passed.
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 in 2023. Included in the group exhibition, This Mortal Coil, at the Landmark College Fine Arts Gallery in Putney, Vermont in 2023 (curated by Professor Samuel Rowlett).