openings

Vatina Cangelosi

I use performance as a playful attempt to connect with and witness my chosen family. I perform and record this performance during an isolating pandemic, while talking with loved ones who are in different places. Our conversations about cultivating family are fragmented, and layered into this work.

In this performance, I excavate soil, pile it, pour water, and replace the soil into the holes. I use hand tools, and a large piece of handmade paper that is a garment I reach through and a ground for the performance. The paper is made with holes in it.

While viewers watch the looped video, they sit in chairs at a distance from each other. Audio speakers play different fragments of conversation at each chair that layer upon one another in the room.

We are searching for utopia in our continuous, messy attempts at witnessing each other.