I was recently talking with someone about performance art and as she was speaking, I was thinking–wouldn’t it be fun to try something like that blogwise.  I think it’s pretty obvious that I love to twist the medium any way I can.  My experience with performance art is that unlike a play with a plot and story, performance art tends to make a single statement; it evokes a single sensation or emotion.

The best piece I ever saw was a small crack that you peeked through to see a geisha woman in black light washing dishes like a zombie while Siouxsie and the Banshees “Happy House” played in the background.  With a single repetitive movement of the sponge going up and down against the pan, she made my insides twist with her unspoken commentary on the role of women.  Even more powerful was when the girls began disassembling the piece after everyone saw it.  It was only black paper taped to black trunks to create the room, special lights, a costume, some make-up.

A few weeks ago, I found the key to an friend’s house in my old bedroom drawer.  I haven’t seen him in 13 years, and the key actually belongs to his parent’s house.  I had a copy of the key because if he was in the basement, he couldn’t hear me at the front door when I came over, but I only used the key once on a night when I beat him back to his parent’s house.  I let myself in and sat uncomfortably in the kitchen.  I was obviously allowed in the space–they had given me a key–but I felt uneasy letting myself into someone else’s house.

What I’m hoping to evoke with this piece is that feeling of unease as you move through a space that is not your own, seeing personal artifacts out of context, without the owner there to explain.  Is it exciting?  Scary?  Do you wish you hadn’t entered?  Will you rifle through the drawers?

This performance art piece says just as much about me as it does about you.  Though this is exploration without judgment.   I want you to peek around, slip open the cabinets and see what you find.  And let me know how you felt moving through this space, especially not knowing what you’ll find depending on how you enter.

If this is the first thing you’re reading inside the house, please return to the main door and leave a note in the mailbox (fine…the comment box) telling me if you plan to enter again or if you’d rather return to your own home.   And then continue exploring.

The comment box on this post has been closed since rifling through the mailbox and seeing those comments out-of-context is part of the fun of exploring a home.