I PLAY THE ROLE explores how a metal armature, cables, concrete blocks, and woven text banners create interior and exterior spaces.  Both spaces become sites of engagement for the viewer. From the outside, the text reads backward, and the viewer looks internally into the arena created by the weaving. The circularity of the weaving encourages the viewer to move around the external perimeter of the work, enabling each face of the weaving to be seen. To increase the text's legibility, viewers must enter the internal space of the installation, altering their body to duck under the woven banners of text. Inside, the phrases become more legible from one point in the center of the piece. With no defined beginning or ending, the viewer has no prescribed direction of interacting with the text. Each of the four banners reads “the known discomfort I am good at” “not the role but the play” “I play the role I am good at it” and “as it continues to roll.” 

These statements come from a collection of personal observations I wrote, reflecting on the internal dialogues I have as I notice external forces shaping the way I move in the world. As viewers enter into I PLAY THE ROLE, they create a physical presence, a literally embodied interior, for viewers outside the piece. Internal and external spaces are both defined and collapsed through observing others within and outside of the installation. This exchange is negotiated through the body, by what is seen outwardly and what is felt internally, as bodies navigate the spaces on either side of the woven threshold and witness others doing the same. I’m interested in the potential for this installation to both produce and expose these reciprocal relationships of interiority and exteriority, as viewers debate whether and how to move from the outside into the piece.