DURATIONAL VIDEOS​

 

Memory and Endurance  are part of an ongoing video series in which I complete tasks that challenge and queer modes of physical and emotional labor. These works juxtapose the futility of the task with the absurdity of its execution—reframing both as gestures of resistance. By pairing physical exertion with humor, I explore how labor can either build tension or interrupt it, depending on how effort and absurdity settle in the flesh.

 

Each performance also produces a series of ephemeral prints: the impression of my weight sinking into the memory foam, the evolving shape of the inflating and deflating beach ball, and the shape my body takes on camera. This evidence of my body disappears as soon as the weight of my body transfers back to my frame, yet is immortalized on film. Presented in black and white, the boundaries between material and flesh are blurred.

 

I gravitate toward constructing and interacting with ephemeral materials such as;  tape, paper, foam, raw clay, food. The unstable nature of their output mirrors the temporality of existing in a body and helps me uncover the potentiality of queerness in both process and form. I want the evidence (scars) of exposure (survival) to be clear on the material (skin.) This does cause damage (changes) which I would call experience (growth.) My practice is an internal dialogue, evidence of my transformation; an accumulation of both physical and emotional labor. I am proving myself to myself: watch me.  

 

Through embodied research, I investigate what self care and access mean for me. I give myself permission to have a bodily relationship with material in front of people using the erotic and humorous outcomes to somatically unpack internalized bias. These works present my body rebelling against conformity and expectation, surviving the experience of space, leaning into another body for support, insisting on the room to expand freely, and above all, deserving of rest.