The performance began when I walked into a space where university students usually gather. I dropped a stack of folded fabric and a pair of scissors on the floor and proceeded to walk into the middle of the space. I carried a bundle of strips of fabric that I had meditatively tied together, creating a sort of web or net. I cast this net out and sat with it on the floor. I tied strips of fabric around my hands and feet and then connected myself to the web. I invited the audience to participate with the statement “This is all for you,” as I gestured toward the stack of fabric and scissors. Participants began to join in by cutting and tearing strips of fabric, which I used to tie them into the web. Soon they began tying others into the web, and before we knew it, we were all tangled together in a web where you couldn’t be sure who you were tied to. The general feeling of the participants changed from joy to anxiety. As people were tied closer together, they began to feel trapped. At the end of the performance I escaped the web and watched as others struggled to free themselves from the group I had tied them to.

The work represents the complex ways we approach relationships. It takes vulnerability and submission to put yourself out there and connect to people, however if you don’t set boundaries, it can become easy for others to encroach on your space. Suddenly you start to adopt groupthink and it becomes a challenge to maintain your individuality. How do we keep from being swallowed by the group?