CIRCULATION
Two stacks of unfolded newspaper pages lay on the floor beside a stool. Each page is painted black on both sides. No text or image is visible. I approach the stacks and begin to gather several pages, folding them into newspapers. Placing them beside me, I form a stack. I take a newspaper off the top of the stack and begin to read it quietly. While reading, I sit, stand, or walk around the gallery. Finished, I unfold the newspaper forming a stack of loose pages. The process continues until the entire stack has been read and unfolded, at which point I fold the loose pages into newspapers once again.
The performance is meant to be a loop, where the assembling of newspapers leads to the consuming of newspapers and the need for more newspapers to be assembled. Exploring the idea that paper is the historic vehicle for the distribution of information, I am demonstrating the perpetual circulation of news by utilizing the iconic image of the newspaper. Having painted the newspapers black, however, I have removed any chance that information can be extracted from the objects, rendering them useless and calling into question the validity of the information we are fed everyday. The role of the body in this performance is to highlight the everyday role of ordinary civilians as active distributors and consumers of information while passively accepting the information selected for them by others.