Gatekeeper

2017

Black sand

20 minutes


Gatekeeper is a twenty minute interactive live performance that I have performed at George Washington University’s Gallery 102 in Washington, DC, at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE, and at Prizm Art Fair in Miami, FL. Through monologues, simple materials, and abstract gestures, I engaged an audience with the narratives of seven women I interviewed from six continents, all of who have immigrated to the United States. Each personal narrative spoke of the complexities of migration in our current political climate. In my performance role as a “Gatekeeper,” my character becomes a receiver and teller of the stories that the women have entrusted me with, advocating on their behalf. By dissecting and layering each story, the “Gatekeeper” discovers the nuance and weaves what is disharmonious into harmony by transmuting narratives into art. The black sand becomes a metaphorical material that I manipulate, the remnants turning into a performative installation.