33 Desires (2009-2011)

A piece in two forms - a solo performance made of task-oriented choreography and a three-channel video. In the performance, a woman manipulates paper revealing a video of writing drafts, slowly leading up to a monologue of ordinary desires.  Using the metaphor of writing, editing, and creation, the solo speaks to the longing for reaching some sense of completion, and the inability to make it there as poignantly human. The three-channel video developed out of the performance and creates a video-version of the piece.

In the performance of 33 Desires, the soloist manipulates a large swath of white paper.  Later crumpling up smaller sheets of paper, the figure begins to refer to writing and editing, which later, becomes a metaphor for the futile attempt of attaining one's desires.  Video projections appear on these various surfaces -- the moving paper as well as clipboards hanging from the air.  This leads up to a monologue of a simple list of poignant, personal, and also, mundane desires.

A three-channel video version of the work also captures writing and re-writing, as a metaphor for the act of desiring – the way in which as soon as one ‘wants’ something, regardless of whether it comes to fruition or not, the want gives way to another desire.  This video moves from an intimate desire between two female bodies to the gesture of gift-giving, with the wrapping of a small box with the same white paper used to write out the desires.  The video plays between these three images to articulate the push and pull of wanting and not wanting, desiring and letting go.

This piece will become the starting point for a newer work entitled, Delicate Hold.