Tension of a Gentle Hold (2017)

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I spent two hours sewing myself to other people to explore physical representations of relationships.

I offered participants to be physically attached to me with a string sewn to a part of each of our clothing. We moved around the space (an opening for an art show) bound to each other, while we both became aware of having to delegate which direction to move in, being obligated to each other, sacrificing some autonomy, and the interconnectedness of interactions.

Engaging with other people from a simple interaction to a committed relationship involves a range of expectations and impacts that can be difficult to define and understand. This performance provided a metaphor for this abstractness and the opportunity to talk openly about the simultaneous comfort and discomfort of intimacy and the vulnerability that comes with it.

Using the traditionally ‘feminine’ act of sewing and pink/red thread was a recognition of gender expectations regarding women and non-men bearing a lot of emotional weight and pressure especially in romantic relationships while risking the stereotype of being clingy and burdensome, creating an impossible double standard.The threads also mimic anatomical connections, such as veins, blood, nerves, and tendons that carry different things to various parts of the body and are necessary for physical functioning. This intended to comment on the range of relationships as an integral part of human life, a part of daily functioning, and to blur the boundaries of ‘physical’ and ‘emotional’.

When I sewed myself to someone, we became committed to each other. One of us moved and the other had to move too. We were guaranteed the comfort and responsibility of a partner to navigate a public space with. The participant chose when to become detached and I cut the string in the middle, leaving us both with a piece of the string, a tangible memory of our temporary intimate interaction, hanging from ourselves.

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photo credit: Cayla Skillin-Brauchle