Crochet II
(2017)
Crochet II
2017
Single chanel video
28 min 33 sec, loop
Crochet II is a minimally edited performance that is looped to create a continuous screening. Original video was filmed in 2012, but the piece was re-worked in 2017 for an exhibition at DuPont Underground in Washington, DC, where it was projected on the wall at about 12'x24'.
The crocheted blanket that I am moving underneath in this recorded performance was hand made by my great, great grandmother, whom I never met. The blanket appears delicate, and possibly ‘feminine’ because of its intricate floral patterns and open structure though which flashes of my skin and hair are occasionally revealed while I am continually moving and adjusting my body beneath the blanket. Throughout the performance, my relationship to the blanket that covers my body is constantly flocculating: at times my body contorts outwardly and stretches the fabric so that I appear to be trapped beneath it, while at other times my body is curled up and almost-still, as if the blanket were providing comfort or protection. Evidence of this tension is conveyed throughout the piece in contrasting indications of struggle and captivity, fluidity and harmony. Crochet II aims to disrupt the fetishization of conventional ‘femininity’ and subvert those standards of beauty and sexuality that have been defined by the male gaze and engrained in mainstream culture, where those ideals relentlessly persist.
2017
Single chanel video
28 min 33 sec, loop
Crochet II is a minimally edited performance that is looped to create a continuous screening. Original video was filmed in 2012, but the piece was re-worked in 2017 for an exhibition at DuPont Underground in Washington, DC, where it was projected on the wall at about 12'x24'.
The crocheted blanket that I am moving underneath in this recorded performance was hand made by my great, great grandmother, whom I never met. The blanket appears delicate, and possibly ‘feminine’ because of its intricate floral patterns and open structure though which flashes of my skin and hair are occasionally revealed while I am continually moving and adjusting my body beneath the blanket. Throughout the performance, my relationship to the blanket that covers my body is constantly flocculating: at times my body contorts outwardly and stretches the fabric so that I appear to be trapped beneath it, while at other times my body is curled up and almost-still, as if the blanket were providing comfort or protection. Evidence of this tension is conveyed throughout the piece in contrasting indications of struggle and captivity, fluidity and harmony. Crochet II aims to disrupt the fetishization of conventional ‘femininity’ and subvert those standards of beauty and sexuality that have been defined by the male gaze and engrained in mainstream culture, where those ideals relentlessly persist.