Shelter-in-Place
Brooklyn, NY, 2020Twelve 1-hr long performances
Confronting Oneself, March 2020
Facing the Shadow, April 2020
Shelter-in-Place is a series of twelve one-hour long video performances I did in my apartment over the first three months in lockdown. I performed simple actions, often staying in one spot, fixating my gaze on one object such as a clock, my own shadow or reflection. I have also washed my hands with soap and water for one hour, hid behind the American flag and read One Hundred Years of Solitude to a statue of a blue buddha.
As life outside came to a halt, I wanted to stay even more still inside, exploring issues of isolation, passing time, confronting myself and our new reality.
Annunciation
Humboldt University Greenhouses, Berlin, Germany, 201922 minutes
Annunciation is a 22-minute performance based on the namesake 17th century painting by Nicolas Poussin. In the moment depicted the Blessed Virgin Mary is visited by Archangel Gabriel who announces that she will conceive and become the mother of Jesus. A white dove soars above her, a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
In my performance a drone continuously hovers over my head creating tension between organic and mechanical forms, the body and the machine. The stillness of the pose highlights the resistance of an individual in the age of mass surveillance, tracking and data harvesting.
Accept Your Penance
Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf, Germany, 20182 hours
photos: Erik Haines, Rote Liebe
When I entered the first grade in post-Soviet Russia, my teacher instructed my mother to tie my left hand to my body with a leather belt. This way I could do homework only with my right hand. One could not be a lefty in Soviet Union, everyone had to be the same.
My mother could not handle my tears. To this day I remain left-handed. In Accept Your Penance, a two-hour performance, I recreate this childhood experience while repeatedly writing the words To dust we shall return with my right hand.