Track Tricycle

October 2019, Gesling Stadium

Track Tricycle is a durational endurance performance done by the artist. This project stems from the artists internal feeling and insecurities and is a projection outwards to her friends, peers and coaches. In this performance, the box represents the confinement and isolation felt by the artist on her cross country team and in her day to day life. The reflective surface is about how those around her project themselves onto her which makes her feel like less of an individual. The childhood trope of the tricycle is speaking to the way she feels she is treated as a woman, an artist and as a non- top performing athlete. The act of circling around and around the track she has trained on for three years is something she has done before, however this act was more strenuous than any running workout that she has done before. This was another important aspect to the work in how the artist herself though she is confronting these feelings, may feel that she deserves the hard work and deserves to be physically punished. In the end of the performance, the artist was asked to leave the track, as she was violating one of the policies set by the stadium management.

The direct audience for this performance was the Carnegie Mellon Football team, and coaches, the CMU Track and Field team and coaches, a few members of the Cross Country team and coaches, passerby’s. This audience was angry, amused, but mostly confused by the act. This audience also had the opportunity to figure out who the artist was, and asking her about it after the performance. A secondary audience are people on social media after people posted photos and videos of the event, those who hear about the project from their friends, and lastly are those who read about the project on a blog or website. The audience on social media is the least likely to figure out who I am, as they are strangers and do not have the same context as my teammates to figure out who is the boxed figure. What the audience members will ultimately get from this performance is a feeling, and whichever feeling that might be, then this has been a successful performance.

Duration: 45 minutes

Distance: 1.24 miles

Temperature: 83°F

Policies Violated: “No Rollerblades or Bicycles”