Play Pretend
As a child, I needed to become everyone.
It began by reenacting the spindle scene from Disney's Sleeping Beauty repeatedly. I recruited family members, friends, and strangers into these performances. I assigned roles, directed actions, and insisted upon repetition. I wanted not only to watch the story but to inhabit it completely.
I needed to feel what it felt like from every position.
Eventually I exhausted it completely.
One day I stopped.
I never mentioned it again.
PLAY PRETEND continues this behavior into adulthood.
Accompanying the performance is home video footage documenting the beginnings of this practice in childhood.
The work begins with three positions:
Role One
Let someone prick your finger.
Lie down on a bed with your eyes closed and hands at your sides.
Wait until someone decides to touch you.
Only then may you move.
Role Two
Prick someone's finger.
Watch them lie down.
Watch them wait.
Role Three
Find a sleeping person.
Watch them.
Decide whether to wake them.
Decide when.
Touch the sleeping person when you feel they are ready to be woken.
Roles are exchanged repeatedly between participants of different ages, genders, relationships, and backgrounds. With each exchange, control changes hands.
Repeat this action.
Continue until your interest is exhausted.
Then continue a little longer.
Stop.
To do at home:
Choose something that fascinates you.
Recruit others.
Become every position within it.
Repeat.
Continue until your interest is exhausted.
Then continue a little longer.
Stop.
Production Notes
A sterile single-use lancet will be used for all participants who choose to take part in the action. Participation is voluntary and may be declined at any stage.
The puncture is intended as an initiating action within the experience and references the event that precipitates sleep in the original narrative. The action is performed once per participant.
In the childhood reenactments that informed the work, both the puncture and the kiss that happens in the film were enacted literally. That said, depending on the environment, venue requirements, or participant preference, a simulated puncture may be substituted. The structure of the work remains unchanged, though the experience of the work may shift.
All interactions between participants are discussed and agreed upon in advance. The act used to "wake" the sleeping participant may vary according to individual comfort levels and consent.
No matter what, the artist participates in the work under the same conditions as the participants with whom she is enacting the scene.