crying

perfume, glass eyedropper, ceramic jar, chair, table, drape

performance investigating the sometimes contradictory physiological/psychological aspects of crying.

This performance illustrates a desire to cry, accompanied by a physical inability to cry. The sparse theatrical set was a stage for a fabricated event of crying. A glass eyedropper was used to drip "tears" of perfume near the eyes over a period of 15 minutes. This produced an exhibition of artificial tears, that eventually resulted in the presentation of actual tears (due to the irritation caused by the fumes and their proximity to the tear ducts).
This performance called into question the reliability of typical identifiers which illustrate emotions... eg. tears=sadness, or sadness=tears.