the commons
2012 Video Documentation of Performance on February 5th at Chesterfield Commons, Chesterfield, Missouri
The artist runs along the access street next to the longest linear strip mall parking lot in America continuously, for just under two miles. The performance takes place in 40-degree weather, evidenced on the skin of the performer as her skin turns rosy red over the course of the performance. She dresses in a Grecian-inspired white dress, with a yellow fashion performance belt and tennis shoes.
Her performance calls attention to the glut of parking lot space at Chesterfield Commons, which was installed by the developer as a run-off surface for rainwater. While the landscape design has engineering intention, the strip mall’s redundancies are evidenced by multiples of the repeated genres of stores. There is a Home Depot and a Lowes. There is a Walmart and a Target.
In this performative investigation of suburban sprawl, the performance transforms the space into a running track for that measures the human walkability (or run-ability) of the landscape.
JaNae Contag 