bowel(movement) : 100 Hours for my Mother
A durational performance
(bowel)movement : 100 hours for my mother
is a durational art piece designed to last one hundred hours, performed for five hours per day, stretched out over twenty days.
The performance consists of Ryan-Ashley Anderson shoveling a mound of horsemanure from one side of the room to the other, repeatedly, for five hours at a time. She does so while wearing a bathing suit, using a manure pic and a wheelbarrow. A recording plays on a loop—a recording of a personal essay over a backtrack of natural outdoor North Carolina sounds—and on the wall hangs hand-knitted bags filled with carrots and red delicious apples. Hay spills out of a cage. A bridle hangs. A space heater emits summer-like heat. And a sunset light projects onto the wall, with Anderson in the frame.
artist statement
(bowel)movement : 100 Hours for My Mother was inspired by the rituals we repeat to conjure love; the ways that destroying one’s own body can feel like a worthy sacrifice; the ways tending an animal makes you both more human and more animal at the same time.
This performance is a love letter to my mother, and a restraining order. A magic spell and a dousing of water on hot coals. A fertility dance and a death with. A freedom and a trap.
Like being in the ocean when the rip is strong.
It just looks so quiet out there.
Interested in hosting the extended, twenty day, one hundred hour version of this performance, learning more about Anderson’s work, or viewing her CV? Email her at hello[at]ryanashleyanderson.com to connect.