[ performance ]
cell 4
The artist, dressed in an elegant long velvet dress will sit on a low stool, in the center of one of the empty (unused) cells, with her eyes, ears and mouth stuffed to the brim with deep-colored bougainvillea petals; the stone floor surrounding her will be covered with the bougainvillea flowers. Celestial monastic music will be heard. A warm spotlight will illuminate the performer, who will sit without moving for half-hour intervals throughout the evening. The work addresses both the original function of the building (Christian women pilgrim hostel) as well as its historical and current usage. It creates a place of beauty and meditation, within the stark monastic room, but this bubble of calm requires a shutting off of one’s senses to the world outside, and to all the suffering and moral complexity of that world.