In “Up the Curve” (2020) I scrutinize my experience during the “Stay At Home” order issued in Ohio for March and April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. My slow ascent of the back staircase of my new home is complemented by a sound score that layers Bob Dylan’s “All the Tired Horses” (1970) and the universal healing tone at 531 hz. In each step, I use techniques from butoh, modern dance, and long-durational performance art to internally dissect and externally relate my experience of hopelessness, powerlessness, anxiety, and the seemingly never-ending uphill battle that we currently face as humans.
While watching this work, consider the banality of everyday moments and their connection to the inner monologue of your existence. Physically this work doesn’t depict harm to the body; however, it exhausts the artist’s mental state through constant examination of the past 6 weeks.