Looking Glass
2024 - 2 HOUR SCULPTURAL PERFORMANCE
“Looking Glass” (2024) was a 2 hour sculptural performance performed twice in Fisher Gallery at Oberlin College as a part of the Senior Studio Art Capstone. Act I was performed on December 8, 2024, and Act II was performed on December 11, 2024. The performances differed in audience size and use of lighting.
For two hours, I dance with a paper mache replica of my own body inside a mobile of mirrors and frames. Wearing headphones, we dance to the tracks of various piano arrangements over stretched and distorted ocean waves. One viewer at a time is given the opportunity to sync into the music in my headphones, for a time period of their choosing. Others must view without knowing what is playing.
After viewing Act I, I asked viewers what the piece was about. Answers ranged from a dance with a lost loved one, to with a child self, to with a ghost, to with a male icon from a feminist perspective.
To me, the piece is a representation of the ongoing “dance” of one’s relationship with themself. We are constantly discovering who we are and changing how we see ourselves, from love and care, to disdain and hate. And while we are negotiating who we are, we are simultaneously being watched! Those who know where we are in our “dance”, and those who cannot hear our music bear witness.
