Identity – In Conflict

Materials: White butcher paper, fabric (white polkadot and pleather), masking tape, gel pen, lighting instruments and filters, sandpaper, inks.

Songs: Windmills of your Mind, Proclaim the Day

This piece presents the pandemonium of a person who is split. As a college student I so often get asked "what's your major," to which I have said for three years "I'm a Graphic Design, Theatre double major" for the past three years. It certainly became a part of my identity as well as my primary objective in school. The issue is the two don't play nice, even within the same school. One always pulls harder than the other, to which there are consequences. The total conflict of two of my defining characteristics, then became a piece of my identity, and people generally expected to find me in distress. There are small pieces of myself that show up–such as the writing on leather in place of my love of books, and small pieces of sandpaper for when I get too gritty, but the overbearing focus is the conflict and assault of light.
The inspirations come largely from Dada and Expressionist art and theatre, as well as the Theatre of Cruelty movement, with nods to Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi in particular. There is writing on my chest that I did backward with the gel pen, including as much of the word "ambidextrous" as I could write upside down on my chest with my left hand.
The culmination of the video is falling to the ground motionless to reveal the elements of spirituality and religion (pentagram, tree, cross, yin yang) that were there the entire time, even if you couldn't see them.