The Books of Waiting

These assembled 'Unfinished Portraits' comprise Book One. This artwork began from improvised performative actions based on visceral memories.The video recorded as they happened without second takes, nor with any special lighting or props. Later, a narrative developed from these embodiment explorations that I organized as video chapters and my texts interspersed with letters from my mother. I found those letters after her sudden death in 1999. 

This work is committed to expressing dimensions—from deep within the body—of state violence's intangible impacts. It attempts to do so in the tradition of the 'instant dance, improvisations, and performance' in which I was immersed in NYC during the late 1980s. The performativities, video and sound recordings happened in non-controlled spaces—forests and abandoned areas, in Toronto ON, the Laurentian region in QC, and Detroit MI.