Date: 2010
Place: Elche, Spain
Event: Conference on Death and Dying at the University Hospital, Elche, Spain
Images: Uma Bunnag
This work was presented at the annual, international Conference on Death and Dying in the University Hospital in Elche, Spain. In it I look at death as separation, as an inevitable individual journey that removes us in one moment from the material world and from all our attachments in it. The simplicity of death and the complication of living.
Notes: There is a white, coffin-shaped dress on the floorand attached to it are are 9 ropes, each 9m long and covered in white porcelain strips. I ask the audience to help me to put on the dress and to hold onto the ropes, stretching it our to its full length: I explain that during the performance I will be rotating slowly in such a way that the porcelain strips will cover me entirely. As I turn, the rope gets shorter and the participants get closer to me. Eventually they must turn away to make space for the person behind them, until there is no more rope. At this point I ask for help to unravel myself. Instead of doing what we just did but in reverse, they each begin to untangle the ropes without agreeing on a plan. What took 5 minutes to do – took 45 minutes to undo.