7 HOURS OF CARE

7 Hours of Care

Follow the link to the Youtube Live Performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dbXUc4mBxQ

Audience in invited to join at any moment of the performance, for as little or as long as they’d like

Date & Time:

November 22nd, 2022

12 Noon - 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

A Sammi Price Voice Production

Technical Director: Eliane Delage

Special Thanks: Delaney Palma, Alex Scelso

The limit of the human mind is the only limit for possibilities where one may discover connection and meaning to one’s own life through long-durational performance. The following writing delves into symbolism, viewpoints, and the artist’s own thoughts and takeaways from the piece performed. Additional sentiments will be added in the weeks following the performance and you are invited to share your experience directly with the artist. 

www.sammiprice.com/performanceart

sammi@sammiprice.com

This performance is not fixated on or limited by the number 7; however, the piece does symbolize the releasing and forgiveness of a 7 year time period in the performer’s life which inspired them to create this piece.

Visual Description of piece:

The Waterer (referring to the performer) enters the filmed space, arriving from a destination unknown. Two live streaming cameras capture a potted rose, the performer, and a pool of water in the room. The Waterer fills a vessel, walks to the rose, grasps its thorns, and waters it. Over the course of 7 hours they repeat this non-stop motion of filling, walking, holding, and watering.

Words from the artist:

“It would be easy for me, as the creator, to confront this piece from a place of safety. I’ve come to realize that creating art is to put yourself in a place where you feel scared, because change is never comfortable. Story is a vital part of art, as all art is accompanied by story. I cannot shy away from sharing mine, as much as I may approach with nervousness at the idea, in expressing how 7 Hours of Care was created. The concept stems from a time where I realized I had lost awareness of  choice in my life. It felt as if I was standing on the edge of a pond, watching an inner version of myself gasp in the water in front of me. I saw myself at 5 years old in her, at 13, seeing her in every night she had prayed not to wake up in the morning and every moment she had breathed in the energy of this life eagerly. I saw she had been treading water for too long, about to slip beneath the water’s surface for the final time, before she would be forgotten. I needed to make a choice if I was going to pull her out. Awareness of choice gave me the ability to save her, to regain awareness of my inner self and to be able to make conscious choices in the repeated actions I take everyday.  Developing awareness over choice is integral to my own story, and a larger concept I feel is not discussed enough.

This is a piece about choice. When awareness of choice in our own lives is left unattended, over time, it may shift into a non consensual habit. That awareness is what we spotlight today, as I invite you to view your own life from another perspective and observe the choices you make everyday.

The Waterer. (The Caretaker)

The symbolism of the Waterer dives into the role of the caretaker;  an individual who is consumed by the never-ending act of nurture. This piece hyper-focuses on this period of 7 continual hours, a small snapshot of time compared to the days, years, and decades in which we as humans dedicate habitual action to our own acts of nurture. I ask you to read the following questions and words without an ounce of judgment on yourself, release the emotion of pre-conceived negativity, or even positivity, you feel from reading them. Simply answer the questions from a logical, unbiased, factual approach.

-What is a repeated choice you make everyday? 

-Is this a choice you make from free-will, or somewhere else? Guilt, pressure, fear?

-Does the recipient of this choice give you any nurturing back? This concept can also apply to patterns of thought, the recipient acting as yourself.

These answers can be as simple or abstract as you like. Privilege and varying circumstances in life will produce different answers to these questions. Oftentimes, we must create action from a space of necessity, such as working a job you may not enjoy but need to do in order to support yourself and your family. I ask you to move deeper than this.

-What are you nurturing in your life? People, a substance, a pattern of thought? 

-Is there something you do everyday that you are unaware of? 

-When performing this action, it may feel like a small moment of time, but when combined and repeated it adds up to hours, years, decades, of choice. Is it a choice anymore? Or is it a habit you’ve created in which you desire to change? 

-Are you aware of where you’re giving your time and energy?

There are many things in our lives we repeatedly ‘water’, oftentimes unaware of the total length of time we spend giving our attention to it. There are infinite viewpoints as to how to approach this piece, yet I will focus on a select few.

Choice —-> Time —--> Non consensual habit

The simple motion of repetitive watering may be symbolic to, and evident through, the perspective of an abusive relationship. Often these relationships begin from a place of care, a starting line created from joy, connection, caretaking and the purpose-fulfilling choice of one or both of the parties involved. Such as the act of watering the rose. The Waterer seems compelled to nurture the plant, over and over again, leaving the audience questioning why an individual would do such a silly motion for 7 hours of time and live-stream it. It may seem pointless, nonsensical, even macabre as the performer struggles as each hour passes. But I challenge you, audience, to think of how this process would be broken up over the course of years. Under the circumstance of giving pieces of yourself to another human being in an attempt to help them grow, ultimately draining yourself of the life within you. This performance is a small snippet into the act of Care repeated, without pause, where you can see the consequences of its effects. When in a situation where the Waterer nurtures, over and over again, without receiving nurturing they need back, they are subsequently drained while the Rose itself dies under the strenuous process.

The Rose. (The Receiver)

The rose symbolizes the opposing party from the performer. The rose may be construed as another person, a substance, ourselves, a relationship, the receiver of “care”. From the first watering, perhaps even the second, the rose is benefited by this act of care. It is nurtured in the watering, in a situation where it is being taken care of. As each watering occurs, over and over and over again, it subsequently drowns from the amount of water being poured. It dies from the repeated motion, stemming from a place of care. One may argue the rose never asked to be placed in this situation, and is damaged just as much, if not more, than the Waterer in the process.

This is a piece asking us to delve into observing our life from a non judgemental viewpoint. To observe the actions we take everyday. Who do we give our time to? What thoughts do we repeat in our minds most often? If you were to take this particular choice of yours, compact it into 7 hours as the performer is doing here, would you be happy with the action? It can be shocking to grasp the length of time spent on a motion (physically, mentally) as the fine line separating choice and non consensual habit blurs.  

This is not to say all habits are negative. Perhaps we develop habits of leaving notes on our partner’s lunch, reminding them we love them. Perhaps it’s consistently checking in on a relative, from a place of equal love and respect. Or maybe it’s a class or meditation time you set aside because you know that you feel so much better inside after partaking. You know it’s a good habit if it brings you joy. If you feel in alignment with your inner self as you take action. It can be small, or big. An extra 5 minute rest in the morning. Putting on clothes that make you feel at one with yourself, your gender, and expression.

As someone who is full of gratitude for the wonderful habits they have formed thus far in life, I also write from a perspective of a person who lost years of their life painfully, from being fully unaware of a choice turning into a habit. Good habits are consensual. Good habits bring you joy as they are acted upon. Nonconsensual habits slip underneath other emotions to distract you from the harm they are inflicting on you in the long run. Ones that at first feel so good, then leave you in a place where you do not know how to release yourself from the grasp of pain and sorrow it holds you in. Our job is not to judge ourselves in our observance of this, but to simply be aware of them. Awareness is key in building a grounded sense of self.

How often do we repeatedly give our energy to someone or something  in our life, in which we do not realize is a habitual non conscious choice causing destruction? By compacting this concept into a simple motion of watering, we silence the complexities and distractions down to the root action of what so many of us choose to do with our time and energy.