Originally performed during NYU's open studios in 2006, Housed was performed again in 2011 as a part of the exhibit, "Desperate Acts: Performance into Art" at Columbia University.
In this hour-long performance, I sat cross-legged under a basic wooden structure resembling a house. The live footage of my mouth speaking was projected down into the house. I spoke excerpts from my journal that referenced the experience of growing up gay in rural New Jersey. I repeated different groupings of phrases to evoke different patterns of thought and whispered them to draw viewers in close to me. At certain moments during the performance, I felt slightly invaded when someone’s leg would brush up against me. But being that close was needed to turn inside out assumptions of what normal delineations of space are. The repeated phrases over time brought viewers into an intimate mindscape that revealed the interconnectedness of desire, longing, and memory.