bread head (4)

montréal, 2003

silk thread

montréal, 2003

white silk thread on white sliced bread (for wrapping bread to head)

bread head (3)

montréal, 2003

bread head (2)

montréal, 2003

i don’t know if you have heard this story from the legends surrounding picasso…but apparently an art critic was waxing poetic about picasso’s choice of blue in one of his paintings when he asked picasso why he had chosen that particular hue of blue…and picasso answered, it was what he had on hand.

so me and white sliced bread. it is true there is a bread surplus store in my neighborhood where one can buy a loaf of bread for as little as 45 cents. but i like to think there is meaning in my choice of materials. that white sliced bread is reminiscent of home and mother and nourishment. as well as lack of nourishment. that it is symbolic of comfort, as well as symbolic of a comfort deprived of any real value. a refined, overproduced version of what we really need, neatly packed and ready for consumption.

bread head

montréal, 2003

we all have blind spots. we all make mistakes. sometimes we think we are doing “good” when in fact we are doing “bad.” maybe it is a form of comfort. this “not seeing.” an act of denial, but an act involving effort and attention all the same. i guess this is o.k. but it always seems to hurt. i mean it hurts when suddenly we see, and what we once thought we were, or knew, or believed, turns out to be false. that’s when we need compassion for ourselves.

this performance, the bread head performance, enacted in the wasteland of the turcot yards before spring turns everything green and lush, was performed during a period in my life where i could not bear to see what i knew to be true.