A white American man attempts to compensate for his fear of inadequacy through subtle acts of repression. The piece was a study of the kind of people who made a Trump presidency possible. It’s a work that might be quite funny if its implications weren’t so terrifying.

The man is desperate to conceal his insecurity by dividing up the spectators and setting them against each other: a distraction from himself. He attempts to exert his power through the tortuous manipulation of apples; fast-food chicken bones; store-bought, mass-produced confections; and more. A woman steps out from the crowd to resist, and he wastes no time turning her into an object, a thing to be watched, a prop.

It is a battle of wills and histories.

Our aim was twofold: to process the shocking results of the national election that legitimized a vile, ancient, “othering” hatred, and to create a platform for decentralizing the caucasian body to make room for new possibilities instead of old monsters.

“In Security” was presented at the Bronx Museum of the Arts as part of Hector Canonge’s PERFORMANX: In the Deep, a series of performances responding to the 2016 election. It was messy, rigorously choreographed, and the first gesture of many to come.