This performance was created in response to a story that we were told about a battle that occurred nearby in 1014.
On one of our first days at the Colony, we made an excursion to a nearby monastery and church, located next to a rocky riverbed. I was told that this had been the site of the blinding of Samoil’s army of 15,000 men, in the year 1014. The army was sent back to their king, across the mountains, every 100th man left with one eye to guide the march. It is said that when they arrived, Tsar Samoil died of sorrow.
DAY ONE:
Performance action (with audience): Three red bowls are placed on the floor in the middle of the large gallery.
Installation: Three bowls occupy the space.
– Red forms on a white ground
– The land
DAY TWO:
An intervention: a ladder is placed over the bowls by another person.
Performance action (with audience): The figure appears: a barefoot woman with loose long hair, dressed in black. She is humming to herself, as she crouches at the bowls and sews the red ribbons of cloth. As each section is sewn, she pulls it across the floor, until it extends across the room. She departs, leaving behind a spool of red thread in one of the bowls.
Installation: Three bowls, a ladder, and a red ribbon of cloth extending across the floor, occupy the space.
– Red forms and a red line on a white ground, a figure in black
– The river flows
– A river of blood flows from the land
DAY THREE:
Performance action (without audience): The end of the ribbon is raised into the air by threads.
Installation: Three bowls, a ladder, and a red ribbon rising from a bowl into the air, occupy the space.
– Red forms on a white ground, a red line rising from the forms into space
– The river rises into the air
– A river of blood rises from the land into the heavens
DAY FOUR:
An intervention: the ladder is removed by another person.
Performance action (without audience): The entire ribbon is raised into the air by threads.
Installation: Three bowls, and a red ribbon suspended across the room, occupy the space.
– Red forms on a white ground, red lines in space
– The river flies through the air
– A river of blood hovers above the land
DAY FIVE:
Performance action (with audience): The figure in black appears, blindfolded with a red cloth, carrying a red bowl overflowing with small spheres of ice. The ice falls to the floor and rolls away. The figure searches blindly, crawling, for the missing balls of ice, returning them to the bowl. Not all can be found. She rises and carries the half-filled bowl across the room to place it near the two other bowls. She leaves, feeling her way back, still sightless.
Installation: Three bowls, ice spheres strewn across the floor, melting into pools of water, evaporating, and a red ribbon suspended across the room, occupy the space.
– Red forms on a white ground, red lines in space, a figure in red and black
– The eyes are lost
– The blinded return home
