Yeast

This piece was birthed as a text study of an excerpt from The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. The images and experience of making bread from scratch with my friend Adam Harrington, who lent me the Bread Book, inspired much of the movement.

In the first iteration of this concept was an improvised physical investigation into the reaction of bread yeast to water. The first showing, set to a live cold reading of the text by a peer, returned feedback about womanhood, domestic labor, yeast in the female body, and childbearing.

The second iteration of this concept is a ritual of growth. The body dancing is situated in the context of ancestors and offspring, and questions about reproduction are present, but unanswered.

Is the body a form shaped by and made up of its experiences, a trunk that grows around the woodpecker hole in its side? Or is it a substance with individual character, which when activated, reacts in time to its surroundings? Is it both, and everything?

This revision included service of cinnamon raisin bread, handmade from scratch by Adam Harrington.