The Vigil I Have Held for You
2017
Full film 23:00
HD digital video, sound.
This video documents a 6-month-long performance in which the artist transforms a sweater formerly owned by their rapist, reducing the power from the object and transmuting it. This is the first phase of an interdisciplinary piece in which the sweater is changed from an object of trauma to one of comfort, a blanket. Following this performance, the blanket is slip-cast in porcelain and turned into an object of permanence, a monument, referencing the lasting effects of this violent and momentary history. This practice spanning half of a year becomes a daily ritual, lives in the center of the home, and takes on a life of its own. It is a process of catharsis and slow reclaiming of power that up-ends the interior narrative.
Filmed by Aidan Spann.
Performance by Ellery Bryan.
Post-production and sound by Ellery Bryan.
