Cul de Sac
7 hrs + 7hrs
2025
7 hrs + 7hrs
2025
Tongue sees a yellow bird dying
Tongue writes “I thought you would like this bird with yellow shoes on”
Tongue is safe at home
Tongue lives in a cul de sac
Tongue lives inside a military design
Tongue does not know the correct words that will cause no harm
Tongue laughs too loudly
Tongue speaks out of turn
Tongue belts the national anthem
Tongue clings to itself, flapping frantically
Tongue is a line of thought that leads nowhere
Tongue finds no further progress is possible
Tongue was slapped with a ruler
Tongue uses her left hand anyway
Tongue writes “still using my writing”
Tongue sees a bird on TV falling from the sky
Tongue is the people and houses below
Tongue says "I forgive everything"
Tongue shudders inside the mouth
Tongue knows the mouth as a prison
Tongue knows the mouth as a vast open field
Tongue writes “I thought you would like this bird with yellow shoes on”
Tongue is safe at home
Tongue lives in a cul de sac
Tongue lives inside a military design
Tongue does not know the correct words that will cause no harm
Tongue laughs too loudly
Tongue speaks out of turn
Tongue belts the national anthem
Tongue clings to itself, flapping frantically
Tongue is a line of thought that leads nowhere
Tongue finds no further progress is possible
Tongue was slapped with a ruler
Tongue uses her left hand anyway
Tongue writes “still using my writing”
Tongue sees a bird on TV falling from the sky
Tongue is the people and houses below
Tongue says "I forgive everything"
Tongue shudders inside the mouth
Tongue knows the mouth as a prison
Tongue knows the mouth as a vast open field
Performed June 19 & 20, 2025 at Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture for Cindy Baker's Big Thing
Photo Documentation by Michael Woolley and Adam Waldron-Blain
Photo Documentation by Michael Woolley and Adam Waldron-Blain
Cul de Sac draws on the familiar punishment of writing lines after class to reflect on how institutions teach us to use language—how we learn to speak, write, and understand the world through systems that also shape our sense of time, the body, and selfhood. The work considers what happens when those systems begin to fall away, particularly in the later stages of life, when conforming becomes more difficult—or irrelevant—and the body insists on its own truths.
Across two seven-hour performances—one public, one private—I wrote a poem on the gallery window using chewing gum and paper letters. The text gradually emerged, drawing from a letter written by my mother. Through this process, the work develops a language that departs from logical frameworks and offers space for the chaos of lived experience.
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Across two seven-hour performances—one public, one private—I wrote a poem on the gallery window using chewing gum and paper letters. The text gradually emerged, drawing from a letter written by my mother. Through this process, the work develops a language that departs from logical frameworks and offers space for the chaos of lived experience.
back