project image
Barbara Ann Michaels
AT HER FEET

first performed on June 22, 2017
Glasshouse, Brooklyn, NY
performed twice in 2017

RAE GOODWIN

Lexington, KY
goodwinrae@gmail.com
raegoodwin.com

AT HER FEET
RAE GOODWIN

Perhaps more than ever, in the story of our optimistic framework, under which we as the United States sway, we must sit at the feet of our elders.

I sit at the feet of our Grandmothers. A “Grandmother” being a woman of a certain age who shares wisdom with and empowers her community. Sitting at the feet of such an elder holds great meaning and reverence. In this performance I use chairs and parts of chairs as symbols for Grandmother. Chairs are seemingly banal and yet hold the stories of place, situation, and prominence in their elaboration, simplicity, decoration, and/or evidence of use. For this work I tied them together in a metaphoric shipwreck of her story.

In this six-hour performance I sat and stood and bowed at the feet of these chairs while soundlessly I screamed, sewed white braids into rugs, and wrote about her with white pencil on white paper. This performance explores the reverence I feel for Grandmothers and the rage I feel at the system that denies both their wisdom and humanity.