The Change was performed as part of Irrational Exhibitions in Los Angeles, California, 2019
For this work, I enacted private rituals to speak to the temporality of the body, generative cycles, and metamorphosis. I aligned the menopausal body with that of the werewolf, and drew from transformation narratives in fairy tales and horror films. The Change was directed by the simple three part score; “hair, blood, death.” In the first section, I became the werewolf, as I covered my face with false eyelashes. I then made red body marks with my arms onto fifty-three hair prints that were hung on wash lines in the back of the space. The number of pages was dictated by my age, and the imprint references Ana Mendieta’s Body Tracks, as well as the the ubiquitous bloody handprint of horror films. The act of staining and accumulation speaks to cycles of menstruation and the eventual cessation of bleeding once “the change” is complete. In the final passage of the work, I sifted flour from above and cut off my dress, which was shed like a skin in an act of regeneration.
Photography by Safi Alia Shabaik
