Below is photo documentation of my live performance entitled Close Quarters.
The performance and sculptural remains were included in a show at San Francisco Art Institute entitled Exit From Within-- exploring the ambiguities of occupying a body from the locus and limits of their identities.
The performance itself comprised of 120 pounds of soft paraffin wax. I used my body as a tool for making, lowering myself into a plexi box resting on a white pedestal or platform. During the duration of the performance I tried to make room for myself within the confines of the space allotted to me by means of clawing or other removal processes such as melting the wax with my own body heat. The process at times became painful and uncomfortable, a metaphor for how my sexuality and non-conforming gender is confined within canons created by the art world. More so the weight of the wax is the weight of my own body... Considering questions such as how I can take up space with myself and how I can face myself and my materials. This also brings questions surrounding the observer and how boxing myself in is vulnerable. That vulnerability is intended to engage in the viewer as well, asking them if my confined and straining queer body is more approachable.
The performance lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes.
Photo documentation was by fellow artist Mengmeng Lu
