The Spiral 2024, 11:35
Materials: dirt, 40lb Rice Bag
"The Spiral" is a piece that simulates the process of recognition as a productive contributor to the US, examined through physicality and physical endurance. By placing into metaphors the fundamental aspects of "productive" life-- food, neighborhood, and direction-- I trudged in a downward spiral toward my collapse at the bottom.
There exists a necessary condition for the myth of citizenship and assimilation into American society that doubles down on non-white and non-cis-male folks. This condition is productive labor; to be a model cog in the system. When racial and gender minorities disproportionately experience the shameful failure of unfair labor practices, their experiences in academia can be written, for example, as "increased rates of poverty" or "increased youth outreach percentage" as a means of understanding. The statistical research that population studies are based on is often generalized and dehumanizes cultural and gender identities. To be able to study this systemic disproportionality with care and humanizing approaches, an overlooked but strong empathetic marker is physical experience. While privileges can begin research surrounding labor, gentrification, and homelessness, sustained physical examination works to re-ground the researcher: to humanize what statistics cannot, to reveal and empathize with more precise struggles, leading to more accurate and influential research. As this project was intended to be the guiding stone for a collaborative piece, I invite the performer to experience shameful or shameless labor, and the paradox in a promise of a better life: the "American Dream".
Here is my view of the street when I was at the bottom of the spiral. This piece was site-specific to Logan Square, as it is one of the most gentrified and exclusive neighborhoods in Chicago. As this spiral puts you at eye level with the ground, I ask audiences to take on a necessary perspective in considering their home's history and to study the grounds they claim to be home.
THE SPIRAL: PAPER