Witness, 2020
"Witness"
April-June 2020
"Witness" began as a 2-day private performance recorded on Zoom during Covid-19 quarantine. The performance resulted in a performative drawing, along with a video documenting the process.
After the first performative drawing was complete, I knew the series had to continue, and I completed "Witness 2" through "Witness 7" over the coming months. Each drawing took time, requiring a firing of the rocks, followed by a cooling. The drawings include burn marks, resulting from the hot rocks on the paper. After the drawings were complete, rain speckled some of the charcoal markings, as the drawings remained outside overnight.
As the rocks transformed and as the paper transformed, I transformed. The process was exploratory, personal, and meditative. As I made the drawings, my relationship to the word witness deepened. Witness holds a sacred function in my consciousness.
Images from each of the 7 drawings are included here, as well as photographs of the performative process for each drawing.
Though I cannot speak much of the inward journey, here is the process:
-A 22 x 30 inch piece of paper is on the ground, secured by one rock (the Witness).
-The Witness remains in the center of the paper for the duration of the performance/process.
-A fire is made.
-Rocks are put in the fire. They are fired.
-The fire goes out.
-The rocks are removed and placed on the paper.
-The charcoal from the fire is gathered.
-The rocks are covered in charcoal. (I color them all black.)
-Charcoal is removed from the rocks by rubbing them against the paper. (The drawing is made this way.)
-Tea is served.
-I drink some tea.
-Tea is poured over the Witness.
-Each rock, one by one, is washed by the tea, assisted by my hands and clothing.
-The rocks are placed, one by one, on the paper.
The same rock (the Witness) is used in each drawing.
New rocks are fired for each drawing.
I still have the Witness rock.
The other rocks used in each of the drawings live at the foot of a black walnut tree in my backyard.
