Maintenance in Progress

2022

12’ x 5’ x 22’

40 hour installation-performance. Clay, water, ceramic tiles.

Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver BC

[Photos by Gemma Crowe]

In 2021, Vancouver begun to excavate an enormous hole for the Broadway Subway Project. This is where the Emily Carr University parking lot used to be. Watching a fleet of yellow tractors rapidly dig and toss aside humus, soil and clay minerals, I decided to perform a different type of maintenance work within the university. Slipping away from capitalist definitions of productivity, I meditated and performed with unfired clay for the duration of 40 hours. I rolled and joined clay with my hands and feet, painstakingly mended every crack that appeared, and recycled the dried clay in water at the end of the performance. Through this work, I welcome questions about futility, labor, and value. By tending to the ground that holds our weight each day and silent absorbs the impact of urban constructions, I hope to draw attention to the geological deep time held within the ground.