Shelter

As the final performance in the Needs Series, 'Shelter' explores notions of protection, comfort and restraint. One woman sits at a solid table, piled high with pea-sized stones. She considers, perhaps counts, and drops each one to the ground.  A second woman, with a table and chair strapped to her back, attempts to drag an oversized bag of stones across the floor.

The search continues for each woman, in her own way. Now Longva+Carpenter are no longer twinned: each is performing a separate, though related, act. Both women have identical materials—table, chair, 100 yards of white rope, a black cloth bag and 400 pounds of stone—but each connects to the materials individually. The women also wear mirrors around their necks that demand that they finally face themselves as they perform these seemingly senseless, endless, yet poignant, tasks.

Rochester Contemporary Art Center | Rochester, NY | January 2012

Performed for 6 hours