Hard Times 2010
Video documentation by Jennifer Kolmel
Hard Times
Hard Times, a live performance informed by Los Angeles body building culture, Greek mythology and experimental film. This solo physical performance is about the production and effort that goes into upholding a superficial image. All aspects of production are present: lighting, special effects, choreography, sound, and highly trained and manicured body. The performance animates the frozen look of a film still. The effect is not theatrical, but cinematic. The audience has the experience of being on set, witnessing a “take”. I enhance this exploration by using scaffolding, special lighting equipment, crew, and a special effects make up artist.
The central image is that of Tiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes famous for being transformed into a woman. This prophetic power is linked in mythology to his gender crossing — and was distrusted by people.
I perform Hard Times blind, wearing prosthetic mask that makes my eyes appear to have been removed from their sockets. I wear a frosted blond wig and the deep tan of a bodybuilding lady. Clad in a coral body thong, I teeter seven feet in the air on plank of slippery wood upheld by construction scaffolding. For six minutes I perform a body building routine in slow motion. I manipulate my body into the poses with a very controlled, methodical and deliberate slowness borrowed from buto dance. Holding such deep muscular contractions for extended periods causes an overload of the central nervous system – all my limbs convulse and shake uncontrollably.
Culturally and politically, we are in a state of rotting from the inside out. Hard Times responds to the culture of consumption and denial with an image of a body that sputters and twitches with exertion to maintain its manicured surface.
This performance was funded by the Franklin Furnace in 2010 and presented at the Theater of Operations as part of the Movement Research Festival in NYC, the Torrance Art Museum, IT’S (A)LIVE: BRAVE LIVE ART FROM LOS ANGELES at Gallery 114 and as part of You Belong To Me at the Sweeny Art Gallery in conjunction with the University of Riverside.
Photo by Clover Leary
Photo by Tracy Mostovoy
Photo by Tracy Mostovoy
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