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Through the lens of nostalgia, memory becomes a fetish and the seductive unveiling of our kaleidoscopic mind's eye begins the process of interpretation. In this piece, I perform Hungarian dance and song that exists only in the meta-reality of culture. I am the bride to your gaze, trapped by the imposition of the viewer, but not able to exist in any other way.
That is the official description of what i did and I also consider this a working piece where I will perform it again with variations.
I used my grandmother's embroidery and table cloths that she had collected from Hungary to create a mutlilayered "unveiling." The songs i sing begn first with a sad song about leaving home never to return again. The second and third are war songs. The fourth is a drinking song. The fifth and sixth are women's songs. The last dance, once i have transformed my appearance is called a "verbunk" which is a men's only dance. it was traditionally performed by the men who would come to recruit younger men to the army from village to village. I chose this piece to perform in the mausoleum because of the many layering of meaning, the culture, the nostalgia of the object and the songs, the stark contrast between life and death.