Referencing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story, this durational performance takes place within a private residence to explore 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 "the rest cure." In dialogue with this erasure, a dancer performs a series of movements imagining an alternative fate—one of autonomy and escape from confinement.
Performances by Jennifer Lee and Victoria Dombroski.
Medium: Site-specific installation, mural wallpaper, and performance.