Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Over-consumption (project 4 reflection)

For my ASB trip this year, I went to Colorado to volunteer after the flood last November. We did hard physical labor everyday but no matter what, a simple ham and cheese sandwich was always enough to last me through the day. It was the opposite to my usual self because at Cornell, I almost always stacked my food to top my plate. That was when I realized what over-consumption of food was.

My performance was inspired by that epiphany. When getting food to go from the dinning hall, I honestly feel very bad about what I was gonna do to it. I tried to get the most common things like cheese, hams, peanut butter, cereal, rice… The plan was to have Haley stand in the middle, acting happy when being thrown food. After that, I wrapped around her with the plastic wrap, make sure that she couldn't move her body anywhere before setting her down on the floor, grabbing onto her and roll around. Haley was on the passive role the whole time and she was happy about it, showing the ignorance of the consumers. Even when the food that she consumed or the condition that gave her all the food became her burden, she still not realized it.

My favorite part about the performance was the residue that was left on the white paper underneath Haley's feet after we rolled around. It reminded me a lot of Yves Klein's. However, I think the performance could have been more successful if it was simplified a little in term of the food and actions, more control over facial expression, maybe add some language when throwing food at her.

In the end, some audience felt the way they supposed to feel but not everybody. so overall, this performance has not reached its highest potential.

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