The Wrecking of Something
2022-2023
Dimensions Variable; Tongva land, Los Angeles
Performance, Installation, Public Engagement; 35mm, Video

The Wrecking of Something is an endurance-based performance and installation featuring hundreds of pounds of terra cotta trimmings salvaged from my former place of work. Over the course of several hours, I reconstituted these clay scraps using my entire body. Since the initial performance, the project dissolved into an informal project space hosting participatory workshops, discussions, and improvisations in the residual installation. Workshops include “Songs of Redemption, Transformation, Dissolution,” “Corpus Luteum: Attending the Seeding Body,” and “A Walk Under the Moon, Planting for the Future: Wildflowers,” and offer opportunities for attendees to use the reconstituted clay to make seed pods (balls of mud containing dried seeds to be cast about Los Angeles) and ollas (porous ceramic storage vessels that are buried into the ground as an efficient watering method for plants in drier climates). A final performance marked the end of the project, during which several musicians and I improvised sonically as we collectively destroyed the installation's plaster floor.

Performance, installation, concept, video editing: Serena Caffrey
Director of photography: Reid Calvert
Workshop co-facilitators: Armand Ferreccio, Rosie Brand, José Gama Vargas
Musical collaborators: M. A. Tiesenga, Dylan Marx, Patrick Shiroishi, Chris Hadley
Materials: Salvaged terra cotta clay trimmings, hibiscus cuttings, California native wildflower seeds, plaster, plastic sheeting, wood, tape, white jumpsuit, plastic bin