The immigrant has a profoundly paradoxical relationship with the culture and place to which she is acculturating. On one hand, the act of immigrating implies a conscious effort to achieve goals, dreams, and is filled by hopes. One the other hand, it is perhaps the loneliest, most disorienting endeavor a human being can undertake. Common-sense ceases to exist as language becomes unintelligible, and simple needs such as sex and relationships are nearly inaccessible. In "Please, Touch the Immigrant, 2015," I use my own body as a living, semi-static sculptural form as an exemplary of the acculturated individual. In this multimedia performance, I compel participants to touch crudely made pressure-sensors taped on specific parts of my body while holding a monitor. As my body is explored by participants' hands, they soon discover that each sensor triggers different sounds and videos which are shown on the monitor I am holding.
The videos have intimate relationships with parts of my body and relate allegorically to the experience of the immigrant. Sensors on my ankle trigger a very macabre scene of a deer's carcass, believed to be roadkill, being devoured by innumerable maggots and flies. Sensors on my groin trigger the video of a personal ritual of a seemingly pagan and highly sexual nature. On my chest, sensors play a video of two ex-lovers spitting at each other incessantly but taking turns in an orderly fashion. Finally on my head, a video of a preparation for a spiritual undertaking is activated upon touch.
I am slowly mummifying myself with packing and black vinyl tapes of varied kinds which puts me in an increasingly more vulnerable condition along the duration of the performance.
