If you are looking at “RID” at its most surface level, it can be described as a Kundalini yoga session. For me however, the concept behind the exhibition is much more complex. The majority of my work can be boiled down to the deconstruction and reconstruction of identity. I’ve mainly focused on my own identity in past bodies of work, but “RID” allowed me to experiment and make several decisions that I normally don’t. The idea for “RID” came about in part because of the nature of the venue. The Fuller Projects is an exhibition gallery whose mission statement includes encouraging and giving artists a space to make that which is outside of what they normally do. With this in mind, I decided to create a site specific performance work and invited the public to join me in collective making, both new territories for me.

I suppose “RID” could claim its origins about four years ago when I was introduced to Kundalini yoga. I’ve been a dedicated practitioner ever since and use the practice to continue to deconstruct and reconstruct my own identity. Over the years, I’ve noticed that practicing Kundalini with my significant other has helped us to build our identity together. This observation inspired me to expand on the relationship to include more people and experiment with several energies to create a singular identity, even if only temporarily. The public was invited to come “get RID of some sht” with me during two back-to-back hour long sessions in the gallery. The timing of the opening was scheduled towards the end of the semester when I knew everyone (myself included) would have built up stress and tension to release. I designed a score specifically aimed to help us get “RID of our sht” together. It included tuning in, body warm ups, several meditations, and chanting. To my surprise, more people than I expected came out and stayed for the whole hour. This resulted in a very powerful collective energy that invigorated the entire gallery, especially during the chanting.