30/30+

Photographic and video based performance project. 2012

For at least 30 minutes everyday, over the course of 30 days, she ran. Beginning from the same location, each day a new route was explored—north, east, south, west. The duration was dependent on her physical and mental strength that day, that moment. Unique hand-stitched maps plotted the daily journey and photographs documented her body’s reaction; sweat.

The Involuntary Response photographic series investigates the body in both surface and function to scrutinize social perceptions of gender and femininity. Responding to the adage ‘a lady never breaks a sweat’ and the social stigma attached, the works serve as a quiet but firm confrontation to the male gaze. The series documents the involuntary response and bodily function of sweating and skin flushing due to strenuous physical activity. The body's natural responses of the heart beating, breathing and blood circulation are all involuntary reactions that the body sustains to remain functional. From the photographs, viewers are able to experience a visceral reaction to the body's involuntary response of sweating that both men and women endure through a variety of physical and mental activity. The series works to contest the antiquated notions of how women are presumed to be, by depicting a woman who is sweating and flushed with nothing between her and the camera.

Hand stitched maps of each days route explore the delicate and piercing complexities of being a woman and taking up space in a society where women are taught to be small and easily digestible.

Day After Day

Two-Channel video, excerpt