DOCUMENTS (TORONTO), 2019
Documents uses dialogue, gesture and the voice of both the artist and the audience to uncover and critique structures of power.
Troubling the division of labour between the performer and the audience, Documents involves a public reading of the documentation that serves to authenticate or legitimize citizenship. Central to this work is a filing cabinet that both holds the props required for the performance, while also serving as a portrait or trace of the artist.
The interactive reading of the documents in the files addresses the embodied specificities of race, class, gender, and sexuality to contest whether these categories accurately reflect the bodies they are meant to represent—while underlining how different audiences and relationships to power may influence this reading.
Photo credit: Henry Chan
