Artwork

Amigdala

InterAzioni Festival of Performance, Sardinia, Italy
April 3, 2010 (approximately 30 minutes)

My inspiration for this performance was the relation between nuts and the brain. I was particularly interested in exploring the role of the amygdala, a small almond-shaped part of the brain responsible for the processing of memory and emotions. I began high above the stage on the technician’s balcony, I gestured for people from the audience to help lower me down while I had my eyes closed. Once on the stage, various actions were improvised: repetitively parting the back of my hair, moving my head around in a box full of almonds (the sound miked from inside the box), and drawing/erasing overtop a diagram of the brain without seeing what I was doing. After the performance people were invited to eat the almonds.

Materials: Sardinian almonds, box, blackboard, chalk

Photographers: Anne Pominville, Caroline Bouisseau