2023
Performance
dual channel HD video
6:09 minutes
Statement
Drifters is the most difficult piece that I’ve ever made, not because of any technical or resource challenges, but to a certain extent, the lack of them. It is a piece fueled by in-depth self-confrontation, and therefore, the level of intimacy is immensely overwhelming and intimidating.
The interactive performance takes place in a hotel room. Each participant enters the room and pours red wine into the baseless vessel that I am holding, then we begin to chat. Once I finish the wine in my vessel, the participant must leave. Participants decide how much wine they pour into the vessel, and I decide how fast the wine is consumed. When the wine has influenced me enough that the glass vessel slips out of my hand, the performance ends.
There are things in life that once picked up, can’t be put down. Every encounter becomes a piece of oneself, and eventually, one would question—what is self?
Perhaps Shel Silverstein answered that question the best in his Skin Stealer:
This evening I unzipped my skin
And carefully unscrewed my head,
Exactly as I always do
When I prepare myself for bed.
And while I slept a coo-coo came
As naked as could be
And put on the skin
And screwed on the head
That once belonged to me.
Now wearing my feet
He runs through the street
In a most disgraceful way.
Doin’ things and sayin’ things
I’d never do or say,
Ticklin’ the children
And kickin’ the men
And Dancin’ the ladies away.
So if he makes your bright eyes cry
Or makes your poor head spin,
That scoundrel you see
Is not really me
He’s the coo-coo
Who’s wearing my skin.
