An Act of Concretion
April 2009
Performance (Duration: 6 hours)
Venue: Bond Chapel
The Act:
a. Sent 2000 letters to priests
b. Received 158 letters of repeated confessions
c. Burned each letter to ash
d. Compressed ash into beads
e. Implanted beads in mussels
f. Removed pearls
g. Strung by public
h. Worn for 158 consecutive days
In the fall of 2008, the artist sent 2000 letters to priests across the country offering an opportunity to anonymously discharge information received in confessional and locked in their minds by the confidentiality of their position. 158 letters were received in a PO Box. Each letter was burned individually, the ashes rolled with paste into a small bead and then shipped to a mussel farm in China. They were inserted into mussel as irritants and pearl grew around them. They were then drilled and shipped back. During the performance, viewers are given this information and asked to thread a pearl in recognition of the priest’s secrets quarantined within the nacre of the pearl.
Performance (Duration: 6 hours)
Venue: Bond Chapel
The Act:
a. Sent 2000 letters to priests
b. Received 158 letters of repeated confessions
c. Burned each letter to ash
d. Compressed ash into beads
e. Implanted beads in mussels
f. Removed pearls
g. Strung by public
h. Worn for 158 consecutive days
In the fall of 2008, the artist sent 2000 letters to priests across the country offering an opportunity to anonymously discharge information received in confessional and locked in their minds by the confidentiality of their position. 158 letters were received in a PO Box. Each letter was burned individually, the ashes rolled with paste into a small bead and then shipped to a mussel farm in China. They were inserted into mussel as irritants and pearl grew around them. They were then drilled and shipped back. During the performance, viewers are given this information and asked to thread a pearl in recognition of the priest’s secrets quarantined within the nacre of the pearl.
