this never-ending violence (2023)

performance, duration: approx. 19 minutes | paper, acrylics

A performance marking the locations in Philadelphia County where fatal & non-fatal shooting have occurred in 2023, as of the month of July. Over 700 non-fatal, nearly 200 fatal at the time of the performance based on the data of the Office of the Controller of the City of Philadelphia: https://controller.phila.gov/philadelphia-audits/mapping-gun-violence/#/?year=2023&layers=Point%20locations&map=12.66%2F39.97671%2F-75.16376

This work contemplates the crisis of gun violence in the United States, and my own proximity to this violence. It is about the overwhelming loss of life, and during the performance I am reflecting on the indirect and direct trauma of shootings & mourning for these people killed or wounded in the city I live in. I think also about what it means to live in such an unsafe place, but under the privilege of being a white female-- whose odds of being shot are still too high, but drastically lower than the largest demographic of gun violence victims in Philadelphia, a black male. Gun violence in the United States is pervasive, devastating, complicated, layered with the evidence and consequences of countless other issues, prejudices, and injustices. With no easy solutions on how to rectify such an invasive epidemic of violence, this performance aims to directly acknowledge its ongoing presence and, in some small way, honor lives lost to it.