M/Other, 2021

7 days (20 hours), performed at Yellow Fish Festival VI in Brooklyn, NY in May, 2021

Materials: seven white cotton sheets, 200 feet of cotton rope, 28 steel cotter pins, six white cotton dresses, white thread, needle, one white plastic lawn chair, sound of twelve hymns sung through a mouthful of milk, ten pounds of half processed spelt, pewter offering bowl, water.​ footage of 16 hours in juvenile spelt field (Sunday only).

Wheat is winnowed, chaff separated from seed by wind. The chaff to the earth, wheat to the stomach. It is productive insomuch as it feeds, clothes, mothers. I see mother as my self, as mother seeing I / II. Bondage through milk, division through air, sunlight. It is taken and turned, the in-between germinates, the abject is put in soil.

It is productive insomuch as it spreads, pulls, perpetuates. Medieval monks had visions of suckling the virgin Mary. Disunion wounds are cauterized later in life.

I always hear hymns in my mother’s voice.

Special thanks to:

Finnriver Grainery for allowing access to their place, product, and history.

Adriana Ortiz, for support in materials and clothing production

Photos courtesy of Olga Rabetskaya