Failed Love
These images are documentation from my Failed Love performance at Port Bruce Provincial Park, Ontario in 2018.
In the spring of 2018, I decided to document and dissect my failed romantic relationships. After examining the relationships, I identified each partner’s characteristics. Each partner was represented by a fossil that had been collected along the shores of Lake Erie. The fossil was wrapped and bound in washi of various colours, thicknesses and textures. These paper-wrapped fossils were then enveloped in cheesecloth and secured with handspun tissue paper thread. The nine wrapped fossils were driven to the nearest beach in early May and hurled into frigid waters of Lake Erie. This process allowed me to identify harmful traits, neutralize them through binding and cast them to the most shallow and therefore roughest of the Great Lakes to be smashed along the shore and eroded. Through Failed Love I rid myself of individuals who had caused me pain over the years by symbolically enacting a kind of bio-conscious revenge.
Please note, the washi used in this series was sustainably produced in Japan, the cheesecloth was made of 100% cotton and the tissue paper spun into thread were all compostable so that the environment of the provincial park would not be harmed during this performance. The fossils were being returned to the lake from where they originated. It was not my intention for the environment or other living creatures to be harmed during this performance. The performance’s underlying design and construction was to bring balance to the world we share.
This performance was featured in the Némésis, ou le châtiment inéluctable of dossier 8 of the online publication MuseMedusa.