Safety in Numbers​

Courtesy of the Artist
Courtesy of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery - UW
Courtesy of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery - UW
Courtesy of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery - UW

Safety in Numbers

David A. Straz Jr. Center, Tampa, FL

Photos by BriAnna Rosen

Courtesy of the Artist

Safety in Numbers is a series of multi-day performance works that invite members of the public to assume my identity through physical transformations such as hair cutting and make up application. The original performance was held at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa during the annual conference for the National Performance Artist and Visual Artist Network, an organization that supports and provides funding for artists.  The first Safety in Numbers was produced with a grant from the organization that provides opportunities for local artists in each city that the annual conference is hosted in.  Like much of my work, the performances and installations in this series explore the power of anonymity through the creation of clones who offer me a sense of security and normality usually unattainable. For the first project we turned the provided POD into a hair salon where stylists Moriah Fleeting and Jenny Mercado worked surrounded by floor to ceiling stripes. A hand cut vinyl floor mimicked the stripes on the walls and the striped uniforms of the performance team camouflaged us within the space. During their transformations, volunteers were able to talk with the artist about the concepts behind the work and its relationship to concepts surrounding gender identity.

In the second Safety in Numbers piece, my Studio Assistant Amanda Pickler and I, hand silkscreened and hand painted over two hundred and fifty 30” x 22” sheets of paper. These prints were installed throughout Killjoy Collective in Portland, OR. In addition to the installed prints, designed to create distortion and visual confusion, 4 salon stations with mirrors were installed. Again members of the public were invited to assume my identity through hair cuts and to be documented with me. In this variation of the performance we further explored the concept of the crowd and the anonymity that crowds can offer those from marginalized communities. This work from the Safety in Numbers series was curated by Julia Greenway, Artist in Residence at Dsjecta Art Center in Portland, OR as part of the exhibition A Situation of Meat.

Dying to Draw

Performance at the Jacob Lawerence Gallery at University of Washington

Curated by Emily Zimmerman for the exhibition ​Material Performance Part II

Safety in Numbers

Killjoy Collective, Portland, OR