FIXATION STATION

2011

Fixation Station was performed in the storefront window of the former Owl’s Nest Bookstore, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, as part of the Hoot & Peep Mini Performance Festival, curated by WhiteFeather Hunter. The events were developed in dialogue with Nathalie Daoust’s Tokyo Hotel Story at Gallery Connexion, as part of a series of events called Salon Connex. Positioned behind glass and exposed to the street, the performance operated as both display and encounter, staging the body within a space of public observation.

The work unfolded through cycles of repetitive, oral-centred actions. A slow, circular line of red lipstick was drawn outward from the lips until the entire face was covered; the lipsticked face was then used as a tool for mark-making, pressing directly onto the papered wall to produce a surface of repeated, distorted facial impressions. Sunflower seeds are cracked and consumed; fruit is used to wipe the face clean. The mark-making references an iconic lithographic work by Canadian artist, Joyce Wieland, titled O Canada (1970), where the artist used red lip/kiss prints to phonetically spell out the words to the national anthem.

The storefront window, directly facing City Hall, framed the performance as both intimate and exposed, collapsing boundaries between interior and exterior, private compulsion and public display. In an adjacent window, a monitor displayed text pieces composed from memories of oral fixation, extending the performance into language. These fragments echoed and amplified the gestures performed, creating a feedback loop between body, text, and image.