Video composed of footage from a live performance, used as part of an installation in the Water exhibition at 6018 North, Chicago, IL

Surface Tension

2023

performed at venues including 6018 North, Roman Susan, Chicago, IL

live-feed multi channel video installation, water bowl, live vocal performance incorporating contact microphone in water, contact microphone on throat, and handheld microphone.

This performance experiments with the threshold between water and air and explores the vibrational possibilities of water and glass as sonic resonators. Live camera projection magnifies my gestures of breath-holding, underwater immersion and vocalization, and translates them onto the digital plane of the screen. Immersing one’s face in cold water while breath-holding activates a series of physiological responses known as the mammalian diving reflex. It is found in all air-breathing vertebrates and is instinctual to newborn humans. My performed activation of this reflex is a poetic attempt to access the ghosts of amphibious ancestors within my body and the memory of being held within and leaving my mother’s womb.

Photography by Ricardo E Adame and Ji Yang