Carolyn+Becker+Body+Project

media type="youtube" key="spFvf8sc8M8" height="390" width="640" As soon as the teacher mentioned this project, threading a needle through my ear lobes instantly came to mind. This project was very time consuming, and physically painful, but the end result, in my eyes, really paid off.

For this assignment I used a needle to thread white sewing thread through my ears onto my clothing in various areas. While performing this act, I though it would be a neat idea to thread through the holes in my teeth and across my face as well. I really wanted a beautiful and web- like form to constrain my head. Physically, it actually was constraining. The thread pulled my earlobes down preventing my head from being able to move without possibly ripping my skin. After completing this complex performance, I decided to try threading string in between my toes and onto my legs as well. This act was just an extension of the previous one to further explore the body and ways I can use thread to create a beautiful web while constraining myself in various ways.

The videos I shot are not only visually stimulating, be it disgusting, curious, or beautiful. They also convey a variety of never ending meanings; the videos are quite ambiguous. There are so many meanings that could be extracted from my video; it is all up to the viewer to interpret my piece of art.

Technically, I did not want my setting to be a dorm room so I was very precise with where I wanted to perform my art. I made the environment me stark black -- I put a black sheet behind me and wore all black to make the white thread visually pop.

The procedure for the performance was very annoying. I performed this act in from a dorm mirror which is unreachable for someone of my height. To fix this problem, I stood on a step stool and leaning forward into the mirror in order to see myself. Also, my tripod could not fit in the table area in front of my mirror so I had to balance it on several boxes to get a perfect angle and view of which to film myself.

//Entanglement// Spring 2011 Carolyn Becker Arts 235

The actress of this composition traps herself in a beautiful and glowing web by means of threading a needle through crevices in the body. The underlying meaning of this work is multi-faceted and comments on sexism, self restraint, and many more aspects but the work should be open to interpretation; the meaning of the work is complex and unexplainable just like the web being formed after minutes of threading.