The Uncomfortable Piece

This is a record of a collaborative performance with a fellow artist, Ren Rathbone, from December 2015. We interrogated the power dynamics between the performer and the spectator while confronting the societal uncomfortability around topless female-presenting bodies. 

We were invited to participate in a night of performance art. We decided to the stage, remove our tops, and photograph the audience. We would return the act of looking back to the audience. We wanted to experiment and experience that vulnerability while capturing their own uncomfortability with becoming a part of the piece.

We transformed an act of vulnerability into a tool of confrontation. The resulting work documents the shift in the room as the audience experiences the disruptive act and realizes they are no longer watching a performance, but were being archived by it. We sought to experience the raw tension of being seen while simultaneously exposing the uncomfortability of those doing the looking.