What’s my Worth?

An installation and participatory performance project that explores valuation. As a reaction to the 2008 economic downturn, I began recording in a journal every financial transaction I made or decided to forego. I created a point system to reflect the influence of how each financial decision affected me, the environment, and others around me.

The journal was the seed to What’s My Worth? The performance is a collaboration between the artist, the audience, and, at times, accompanying performers. Using props and costumes, I invite participants to share what they have had to give up and what they splurge on. Questioning what’s one’s worth? As an artist, as a professional, as a parent? How do our financial decisions define us? How do they affect the world around us, the environment, the water, the air? Accompanying performers, the Judge, and the Voice echo her words and question the audience, involving them and inviting them to assess how the recession affected them and their notions of worth. Themes of finance, value, guilt, and reward are addressed. During the Ivy Brown Gallery’s performance on view here  https://vimeo.com/180627850 I wear an overskirt made from dryer lint, which I transform into a sculptural element to be judged and appraised by the audience. As the performance ends, assigning of value continues; the costumes remain in the performance’s aftermath as installation art. In light of and in the context of one’s work’s worth, the audience assigns value to the installations.

 To see a related work, please visit From the Depth of my Suitcase https://vimeo.com/207365887.