wormhole

wormhole is a durational performance that engages with the relationships between mining, the extraction of natural resources (materials and labor), sounds of collisions, and photography as a link between different dimensions of space, including the place of the body within the limits and territories of the metropolis. The hallways, elevators, and different stories of a metropolitan building are taken up as a mythological space that reflects the overlapping and inconsistent spaces of travel in the city. These corridors are passageways where travel appears to have a stable form, but without a clear design or destination.

During the 3-hour performance, I traveled through hallways, stairwells, and elevators, navigating the audience and keeping in contact with the architecture. Loud and quiet contact sounds were produced when my hand encountered angles, corners, and other materials along the edges of the walls. This movement and sound-based action was punctuated by pulling hundreds of pounds of gravel, the same material used to build places of travel and buildings in Los Angeles, and mined from what is generally considered to be wilderness land in other countries. The gravel was wrapped in sequinned fabric and dragged through the hallways and up and down the elevators and stairwells. Bundles of gravel were deposited throughout the transition spaces of the building. Approximately 50 photographs were taped up on the walls during the performance that were taken throughout the greater Los Angeles area in the year preceding the performance.

This performance work was supported by Irrational Exhibits 11: Place-Making and Social Memory curated by Deborah Oliver at the Bendix Building in downtown Los Angeles.
Image Credits: Yubo Dong (thanks Yubo!! for these & other stuff too)