(Real) Estate / Repair, 2019

Two, 1 hour pieces performed in Pine Plains, New York in May 2019.

Am I tied to the land or to the idea of owning it. To putting something on it, in it. This ownership is reborn by each generation. I am an artifact of my ancestors and I must relearn my relationship to place - draw a line and follow it. Drag a line and it follows you, stops you. The weight of a line. The arbitrariness of geometry, boundaries, fences. My body leaves a fence, but it is not truly left, it is bound to me and I to it. There is no avoiding authorship in ownership. There is no objectivity in real estate. The distance wears me, I am less dense and more fallible than the division. It consumes me.

Over a quarter-mile of land, I drag 27, four-foot-long wooden fence posts tied to my waist with red rope. I bought them at the hardware store two days earlier, and they lay on the floor of my kitchen as I dyed the rope. I cradled them and tied the rope around the ends. As I drag, every five feet I stop and plant a post. I hammer it into the ground until it stands comfortably on its own, and I untie it from me. The rope waves or hangs. I continue dragging the line until I cannot see the first post. Then I pause, I am an extension. I return. At night I pull them out, last one first, and carry them back.

(real)estate and repair were completed during a 2019 residency with ChaNorth.