I POISONED THE CAMPUS WATER
first performed on November 17, 2016
Pratt Institute Campus, Brooklyn, NY
performed once in 2016
KAROLINA KUBIK
Poznan, Poland / Brooklyn, NY
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cargocollective.com/karolinakubik
I POISONED THE CAMPUS WATER
KAROLINA KUBIK
This was the first in a series of performances entitled I Poisoned The Campus Water I, II, & III, which was part of a larger body of work called These Are Not My People, I Never Should Have Come Here.
I found a mattress on the street and took it to an outdoor corner of campus, to a space behind several buildings that draws little foot traffic. I put the mattress on an elevated slab of concrete. I stuck a wooden pole into an open pipe mouth beside the concrete slab. I stood on the bed in a white formal dress and high heels and screamed, “this crazy Polish bitch poisoned the campus water!” over and over again as passing students watched me.
Social/political function:
Water systems are a subject of social national trust. My approach was to consider water as a product and transformational object.
Body as site:
Body as a water container, made of water. Internal experience relates with external as there is no life without water.
Various discourses I consider within the work:
*landscape and colonialism (drinking water)
*North Dakota Oil Pipeline Battle/indigenous peoples
*poisoned water crisis in Flint (Ref. to Michael Moore)
*terrorism
*epidemiology/biology/health and safety
*health insurance in US
*ecology of the city/mental landscape
*private sector of education/education as business
*community life; taboos within university/campus life