A globe of ice melts in my hands.
The action I made during the conference was simple. I chose to perform outside of the context of the authorized and announced performance sites. Instead, I stood still, silent, blindfolded, holding in my hands an eight-inch sphere of solid ice that was slowly melting, staying in place until it completely disappeared. The action was designed to be repeated at various events within the conference in order to function as a subtle and constant reminder of environmental issues relating to global warming.
I first appeared standing in the top row of the auditorium during a panel discussion about community-based art projects – a somber presence easily overlooked. I was already standing in the back as the audience entered and settled in, and the presentations began. I stood there silently throughout the panel, the ice fully melting in the final moments of the session.
I next appeared in an outdoor site, sitting on a low wall, in the vicinity of other performance activities that were spread throughout the site. The globe of ice, brightly lit by the sun, slowly melted as participants of the conference came and went around me. Though I was blindfolded, I was aware of some people stopping and sitting down next to me to watch the ice ball dissolving. I contemplated my own actions that contribute to climate collapse, as I felt the globe slowly shrink and eventually disappear into nothing, from the heat of the sun, and even more directly from the heat of my hands.
