Here is a little information about "Curing Memory"
Where: Contemporary Arts Center, Waterloo, Iowa
Invited as part of Artist series , Jeffrey Byrd, University of Northern Iowa.
Date: November 5, 2009.
Spoke to a class working in performance and installation, stayed at Stella's - the best B&B ever. Worldwind - left on Thursdasy 7am and returned Saturday 7am. Jeffrey has really made performance a vital art form at the college. Waterloo is refreshingly interesting.
I did do research on the first nations of that area and found that the Mesquakie tribes had been forced out by the expansion of European settlers in that region. The chief of the Mesquakie and the Sak, Black Hawk tried to protect his people by moving back and forth across the Mississippi River. Ultimately, much of his nation was destroyed and Black Hawk was taken prisoner by the US Army and finally was toured throughout the Eastern US as a novelity. The Mesquakie were finally able to purchase land north of Waterloo and open a casino, famous for Bingo. The only vestage of Black Hawk and the history of his nation remains as a name for all of that county. My piece then, brought forth the memory of that history through the use of the colors of their flag, which I am wrapped in in one of the pictures. I was also interested in the past that included flooding as late as 2008 by the Cedar River that runs through Waterloo. In the final action, I return to the Cedar river, wrapped in the muslin cloth that I have painted by hand with the colors of the Mesquakie flag and submerge myself in the cold river, drowning memory once again.
As always with those pieces that are site-specific to the history of a place that I am performing, I must work with a paste or oil that I rub over my body - in this case a huge tub of lard bought at Walmart and pouring salt over and into me so that I can perserve and at the same time destroy parts of myself in order for this "other" to arise and perform the ritual of curing memory.
