childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Canada Day, Commissioner’s Park, Ottawa 2006 (afternoon nap 4 1/2 hours)
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Toronto 2005, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (7 1/2 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
I performed the everyday gesture of sleeping, a contemplation on the vulnerable space between pretending and being.
That night most of my attention was spent managing my breath to appear as asleep – but to not sleep. I was also very aware of the movements of my eyes beneath their lids and I spent most of the night training my eyes not to respond to the many camera flashes. I had moments resting internal dialogues and anxieties. For example, I had a short panic attack inspired by a couple who stood calculating whether there was enough air in the case for me to breathe and how, if I were suffering deprivation, it too, would look like sleeping and nobody would know. I perceived the audience as spatial – with acoustic depth of field providing a sense of scale. For me it was especially fascinating to be privy to the many private conversations among couples and groups observing me very close to the glass– as though the glass erased the notion of personal space or respectful distance to my body. Many people spoke directly to me, or about me and the artwork. Some questioned whether I was "dead" or "real" or "drugged." I was not drugged.
I lay awake and alert but for the last 40 minutes of the performance. One viewer whispered to me compliments on my “discipline.” I was in the glass case looking dry and cozy in the rain to all of the wet people who also demonstrated endurance, but actually, the case leaked rain through the bottom track of the sliding door/window. My comfy down mattress soaked up a lot of water that night, especially in the feet area!”
the public sleeping performance initiated childish objects, a series of works musing on artistic actions and objects of my formative years and that continue to inform my artwork today.
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Nuit Blanche Ottawa, Byward Market 2012 (8 hour sleep)
durational performance – glass vitrine, cotton bedding
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance / Contemporary American Art Auctions, Christie’s Auction House, NYC 2006 (20 minute nap)
durational performance – with Louise Bourgeois' Maman
childish objects \ the public sleeping performance 2013
performance photograph — glass vitrine, cotton bedding, 2 chromogenic analog 4x5" colour negatives (as yet unrealised)