Duration 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Amy: Rhiannon staples 166 white rose petals to my body and then, when there are no more roses, she removes the staples one by one and as I bleed she feeds me the rose petals as they overflow out of my mouth. The performance is over when all the rose petals have been fed to me.

I lay on the dirt bed we made for me, feeling the earth come up to meet my skin. I can smell the scent of it as Rhiannon lays white roses around my body. One by one she picks up each rose, carefully pulls it apart petal by petal and staples them to my skin. The white petals enveloping me, covering me slowly. When there are no more white roses Rhiannon stops and begins to slowly remove the staples from my body, as each staple is removed I bleed and she feeds me the rose petals. There are so many rose petals I can’t swallow them anymore, they run down the sides of my mouth as she continues to feed me until the last petal is gone.

Rhiannon: Amy lies on the ground, unflinching. With the click of each staple I can hear her breathing, feel the audience tense. The cement floor is cold and unyielding, the overhead lights white-hot; this is an endeavor that involves surgical precision. When the final stapler is empty I rise and walk across the room to retrieve the sharps bin and specialty remover. The gravity of the moment deepens with every step I take, each staple I remove; I consider pain, pleasure, masochism, consent, risk, reward, endorphin production, our relationship to the natural world, and what ownership of one’s body really means.