Title: My Black Joy
Medium: Performance, wine glass, acrylic paint, water, tape, essential oils
Date: Spring 2019
This is my first ever performance piece. I performed it for an intro/studio class on time-based media. I didn't document it with video so it has become truly ephemeral and I only have these few photos and the below journal of the performance from my memory as documentation
What the Performance Entailed:
- Placed wine glass on podium at the beginning of class, letting it sit in the open pre-performance
- At the start of the performance I had people walk around and look at the glass while I grabbed materials
- I placed one roll of scotch tape and one roll of packing tape on the podium next to wine glass
- I poured water into the glass
- The spectators at this point had clustered close to the podium to get a good view of what I was doing
- I pulled out a vial of lavender essential oil and dropped four drops of the oil into the water
- I set the essential oil down, placed both my hands on the base of the wine glass and turned it while it still sat on podium
- In one fluid motion I picked up the wine glass with one hand as if I was about to take a drink, extended my arm out over the podium away from my body, I said, “you might want to step back,” and I let go of the wine glass letting it fall and shatter.
- In the moment that I spoke, the spectators hurriedly rushed backward away from the podium.
- I looked up at the crowd of people and said, “now put me back together”
- A couple students came forward and worked for over five minutes trying to tape the pieces of the wine glass back together but to no avail.
- The red paint on the wine glass mixed with the water on the floor and got all over the hands of those who tried to fix the glass, looking like blood was running down their fingers and over their hands
