Be my eyes, be my hands is an improvised performance work in which the artist-performer inhabits the gallery space for an unspecified period of time as they engage with an impermanent sculpture of fabric, clay and latex, titled Respawning Effigy. Through simultaneous processes of interaction, documentation, observation and decay, the definitions of subject, object and event become fractured.
As the performer interacts with the Effigy, their actions switching between tender, erotic and violent, it falls apart and corrodes. The white dust of crushed clay is left on the ground an impression of the body's actions. A webcam is held to the performer's face, and their POV is seen by the audience on an outward-facing laptop screen. As the title of this work implies, the subjectivity of seeing and touching is given over to the viewer in this way. The viewer is implicit in both destruction and documentation, and many states of embodiment and temporarility are intersected.
This piece was performed twice for the solo exhibition Ecstasy of the Ancestor at Alternating Current Art Space. The first was at the opening event, and the second on the very last day of the exhibition. As such, the actions of this performance served as an open-ended narrative structure for the show. Both the crumbled remnants of Respawning Effigy and the POV video documentation resulting from the performance have remained as individual art pieces, awaiting further activation.
