Referencing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story, this durational performance takes place within a private residence and explores historical societal norms surrounding women’s mental health. As an audio reading of the text plays, a performer physically erases words from book pages that have been applied as wallpaper, leaving behind fragments that reveal 19th-century attitudes toward female isolation and controversial treatments. In dialogue with this erasure, a dancer performs a series of movements imagining an alternative fate; one of autonomy and escape.
Performances by Jennifer Lee and Victoria Dombroski.
Site-specific installation, mural wallpaper, performance.