project image
Thomas Riccio
HOLY BONE

first performed on May 4, 2017
Six buildings, West Dallas, TX
performed twelve times in 2017

DEAD WHITE ZOMBIES

Thomas Riccio, Shelby Hibbs, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Mona Kasra

USA
thomasriccio@gmail.com
deadwhitezombies.com

HOLY BONE
DEAD WHITE ZOMBIES

“Holy Bone” is a site-specific immersion performance taking place in West Dallas, a warehouse and light industry district in transition. Structured as a ritual initiation, the performance took audiences on a journey through six different buildings and into a deeper part of themselves and their community. Six audience members, referred to as “boners,” were admitted every ten minutes. The entry was at Tacos Mariachi, a local restaurant and the meeting address listed for the performance. Then, the audience was given an entry gesture and the address to the first site down the street. The door was locked and the gesture was presented to gain entrance. Inside, the boners were asked to pick a question they would want answered by their journey from twenty-four listed on a board. In the next room, a diviner asked the boner to whisper their question and throw bones onto a map of symbols, which represented the performance venues and informed how to navigate their journey. Then they went to a room of video and audio installations addressing birth, death, transition, and infinity. This then led to a room of Tan, a beautiful creature of anxiety, tension, seduction, and confusion. Following, the journey led outdoors to meet a calm and organic Kei, a woman offering a stone and directions to the next site. Down the street they went to an abandoned garage and were interrogated for authenticity by Agent Zay, who weighed their stone, a symbol for the soul. If the boners were inauthentic, they were remediated by nearby Cadmus who administered a reality test. They walked down the street to a large industrial building for psychological questioning by Que, drawing out metaphysical concerns. Nearby, Bung, a dominatrix, probed for emotional authenticity. If deemed inauthentic, they would not pass. At a distance in the large building was Rem, comforting and welcoming. Painted on the floor was a labyrinth of life symbols with the boners tracing a pathway, encouraged and assisted. Here, their stone was washed. Back to the streets, they headed to a distant building and to Zun, who offered medicinal brews and messages for a life to live. Tracing a pathway through the streets encountering guides and advice along the way, they reached the last building and a meditative wash of song and dance, like Shiva, the world was created anew. They went down the hall and into a room of darkness with Vig, who reminded the boners of hearing and being. The lights went up and they could observe a teeming of worms in rich earth. Through a chamber and out the garage door headed to an insulated storage building, they went to a place where life force is stored and accessed. Sabu demonstrates the life force, the living energy. Then they went to the last room where they met Urd. In a long high chamber of gauze and shadows, boners were invited to sit cross legged at a long old table. They were there to add a knot and tie their stone to an ever-expanding web of material. The performance ended with each boner brought to a photographer, their re-birth documented and offered as a marker.