Maximum Birgit
2011-present
2011-present
I asked anyone I met to record themselves pronouncing my name, to show the differences in each pronunciation and to understand the ownership I have over my own name.
Reasons for Licking
10–5–2013
10–5–2013
The performance consists of repeatedly licking a small cafe window during regular business hours. The piece has an unlimited time frame and can be seen as an exercise to be performed when great anxiety arises and needs expression. The duration of the piece addresses the excitement, boredom and intimacy found in public spectacle. The act mimics a dog’s need to endlessly lick a wound. It is a meditation on shame, humor, sexuality and acceptance. By performing an absurd and endless act of public licking, my anxieties were unburdened to the crowd and also given personal ownership.
True Self Test or 24 Hour Friendship
2014-2015
2014-2015
Drawing from a time of extreme lonliness and virtual homelessness, I was floating, out of contact with long term friends and family, untethered. I set up rules which would dictate my interaction with each participant in a quest to find my “True Self”. Each participant was a stranger to me, often found in a foreign country, at a pub or online. Each participant was aware of the nature of the 24 hour relationship.
The performance asked a question about who I am with each person, a self portrait based on the limitations or extentions which are revealed with each encounter. The time limit reflects the nature of friendship, the meaning of meeting and saying goodbye. How do we hold a memory of a relationship after it is physically over? No more contact, physical or virtual. Each friendship was also a decision for the participants: Will they decide to follow the rules? What is different when a friendship has a decided end?
Each 24 Hour Friendship was a private experience between myself and the participant.
The performance asked a question about who I am with each person, a self portrait based on the limitations or extentions which are revealed with each encounter. The time limit reflects the nature of friendship, the meaning of meeting and saying goodbye. How do we hold a memory of a relationship after it is physically over? No more contact, physical or virtual. Each friendship was also a decision for the participants: Will they decide to follow the rules? What is different when a friendship has a decided end?
Each 24 Hour Friendship was a private experience between myself and the participant.
Fetish of the Ex
2016-2020
2016-2020
I had found myself in a new town with a quieter, more routine life in a house with a new man and few friends around. The result was a performative exploration of a relationship with my new boyfriend’s ex-fiance. It involved the house they bought together, her leftover possessions and the myth of her presence.
As I moved inside this practice,
Also an artist, I noticed the similarities between us from her forgotten childhood journal. I created a friend, a confidant and an enemy. I created a fetish.
The house and its gardens also became involved, so I explored what they could tell me.
I began to understand how replaceable I was, fulfilling a biological need for another human, in a similar way to the person who came before me, in the same way a plant makes moves to return year after year.
My performance, “Fetish of the Ex” consisted of daily engagements with her clothing, journals and leftover artifacts with the space of the house and my mind. I kept an ongoing journal of my experiences. I lived within her space, to consume it and be consumed. I made decisions as she may have. I submitted to her and I ruled her. I moved through time and space to understand and reenact the myth of their past, to better understand how her relationship with him was shaping ours.
As I moved inside this practice,
I began to uncover and wear her leftover clothing. I regarded her personal trinkets as my own.
Also an artist, I noticed the similarities between us from her forgotten childhood journal. I created a friend, a confidant and an enemy. I created a fetish.
The house and its gardens also became involved, so I explored what they could tell me.
It can be a sort of game to become so quiet in a house that you don’t even believe you are there yourself. I tried this with her; got really quiet and sank into the bed to let her run around so I could watch her.
I began to understand how replaceable I was, fulfilling a biological need for another human, in a similar way to the person who came before me, in the same way a plant makes moves to return year after year.
My performance, “Fetish of the Ex” consisted of daily engagements with her clothing, journals and leftover artifacts with the space of the house and my mind. I kept an ongoing journal of my experiences. I lived within her space, to consume it and be consumed. I made decisions as she may have. I submitted to her and I ruled her. I moved through time and space to understand and reenact the myth of their past, to better understand how her relationship with him was shaping ours.
Filed under:
Performance, Self Portrait, Meditation
Performance, Self Portrait, Meditation
