Discarded: Self-loathing, 2008
Video of performance (3 minutes, 48 seconds)
The frame focuses on an area of a backyard that is covered with small bits of brick. The woman repeats aloud how she loves herself. However, the range of emotions she communicates with her voice makes clear she struggles to internalize the concept her words convey. The viewer sees the woman’s forearm and one hand as she systematically moves around and cleans debris from a small area, that the effects of nature will simply cover over again not long after she’s done. This work explores how, for some people, acceptance, love and compassion towards the self is a long process of self-inquiry that feels at times like a Sisyphean labour.