For this performance I called upon the archetype of The Scapegoat and The Shepherd in an effort to consider the deliberate manipulation of individuals by skillful strategists who understand the mechanisms of victimization and who knowingly sacrifice innocent victims for their own gain.

Guests entered the gallery looking up to a large horned creature hanging from the ceiling while tripping over a long wiry pink tail that took up most of the lobby floor. The tail led to a shiny pink scapegoat chair sculpture with a long flowery neck tied down to a floor covered with mesh netting bits. In order to enter the rest of the gallery viewers had to pass through my installation (in this case doubling as a border). On the floor I wrote and implored the viewer to “enter me softly.” Once inside, the installation was populated by two scapegoat thrones, three scapegoat idols and two performers including myself. We stood on a pedestal against a white wall and in front of a multi-color LED light. I wore a large black scapegoat garment covering my entire body. The second performer was the shepherd, a white man holding a staff and wearing a large square white hood that covered his entire face. For three hours the white shepherd stood, in subtle movements, surveying the installation site from a single peep hole in his hood. I, in turn, remained low to the ground wearing the scapegoat garment, both watching and being watched.