Doing Performance Research

Exploratory performance collaboration by students of the Spring 2017 undergraduate course Doing Performance Research, questioning the role of power in the codes and decodes of national belonging. [Excerpt 1: 5 Minutes]

Jovencio de la Paz at his presentation discussed how his artistry is influenced by his cultural heritage. He was inspired by the color indigo and its process in textiles. The indigo dye is used in the technique batik. Batik is when they make intricate designs in dye-resistant wax on cloths then dip them in the indigo dye, the final piece being an elaborate textile. De la Paz attaches a historical meaning to his work by addressing the significance of indigo. Indigo is praised in Indonesia for being a raw color found in nature. It’s a highly respected color and ritual process, as individuals who handle dye are considered holy. When European colonization occurred, colonizers exploited the native workers for indigo dye as they also were fascinated by it. In de la Paz’s art work he uses batik as a form of homage to the color indigo as his series pieces show figures being oppressed. I resonated with this meaning as it discusses the process of indigo taking on a transformation into politics. Within my creative response I decided to make a piece that discusses the colonization and exploitation of indigo. I drew two hands that symbolically show power inequality. One points in a dominant manner against the other hand submissively has it’s hands open with indigo dye pouring out. It’s supposed to represent how the hard labor of making indigo dye is made by demand. In the background I wrote, “our precious indigo”, repetitively like a chant as a symbol of natives claiming their color. But then I drew a blue line across each phrase as a way to erase their voice, as a symbol of exploitation by the colonizers. I wanted to portray the historical context of the indigo dye as de la Paz did but through my own interpretation of drawing.

This performance also served as a vehicle, to explore and grieve the story, of being the product of a broken-home, and a broken-country. The track that I produced, entitled El Paso, allowed me to express the pain of displacement and abandonment, surrounding the nonexistent relationship to my abusive father, set on the stage of the sanctuary city of my people. It is from this piece, that we mourn the relationships we should have had, not only with our families, but to our country. A nation that was built on the rhetoric, of taking in our poor and tired, has now abandoned our brothers and sisters, by displacing them through a deportation process. And yet, somewhere within our being, and in our hearts, we cannot deny the love we still hold for our abuser, whispering, “I may not always love you”.