Unpleasant Activities: Artist Statement
For our performance art piece, we wanted to explore the idea of personal discomfort. Each of us finds discomfort from different objects or creatures, so we wanted to tests our limits in this piece. Through touching disturbing subjects and forcing ourselves into feeling intense pain, we bring up the idea that uncomfortable situations always have a control or higher power over us. There are at least two subjects in each challenge, to show the power dynamic between what disturbs us and ourselves. The atmosphere is sterile and blank, resembling scientific room. We wanted to convey this feel in order to show that each of these tests are experiments of our limits. Since our subjects are so intensive and dark, we wanted the music to enlighten the experience so the video could be relatable and humorous to the audience. There is an inevitable strong correlation between pain and humor, and naturally we laugh when we see someone feel pain.
