The title, “Notes on Camping,” is a pun, referencing the title of a Susan Sontag essay, Notes on Camp, about the exaggerated queer aesthetic sensibility, and the recreational activity, camping. I was interested in exploring the ways in which I could use camping equipment to transform my body and the performativity of my gender. The actions that I performed were responses to the way each object transformed my body, and the effect those transformations had on me. The process of creating the work was therefore all about fluidity. The duration of the piece was six hours.

I began at the edge of a coulee. I used camping equipment—mosquito net, rope, sleeping bag, space blankets, tarpaulin, tent, tent pegs and tent poles—to transform my body by wearing, draping, wrapping, stretching and otherwise interacting with the items to change the shape of my body, restrict my range of motion or create extensions of my body. I entered the coulee, transformed. I left each item behind, returned and repeated for the duration of the performance.