performance art

Using excess, decoration, kitsch, camp, dress-up, drag, anxiety, crying, and humor is how I navigate my life. I want to gently poke fun at adulthood, by relating and confessing how I'm doing it wrong. The camper is the stage for my "home" and all of the glittered thrift store objects stand in for nice new ones. In paying for materials and my time, I probably could have just as well bought the pretty new version at the big box store. But do they accept my jumbo-sized checks?

This thesis analyzes The Psychodynamic Sequence, a sound and performance suite in three parts. The Sequence traces the journey of Alice Hadley, a working class woman suffering from anxiety and depression, as she begins therapeutic treatment. Through sound installations and performances, the Sequence explores how the presence and absence of body in juxtaposition to an audience can act as indicators of emotional space and tension. Themes within the Sequence include the relationship between gender and mental illness in Western culture, the thesis project's context within the contemporary art world and performance, and how the project works towards dismantling the prevailing tropes of mental illness and personhood in America today.