Dancing, Spitting, Crying 2006

This was performance performed as part of a group show titled Feng Shui at the UNION ArtSpace in Santa Ana, CA. The performance began when music came on the house PA of the song Do You Love Me? by the Contours and two spot lights facing each other come on. Space cleared out as I began to dance between to two lights. Above me hung a ceiling tile. As I danced I would begin to spit above me onto the ceiling tile. The spit would hit and hang above me. Unbeknownst to the audience the impact of the spit would also knock cayenne pepper hidden on the inner edges of the tile to float down and into my face. As I danced I would begin to cry and snivel. I continued to dance and cry with the song repeating over and over. At a certain point- possibly in an effort to help me and signal and end- an audience member turned off the music. The crowd booed at this and cheered me on to continue. A viewer came and offered me water. I signaled for the music to come back on and continued to perform until I decided I could not. 

Volume = Presence 2010

this was performance and installation was in collaboration with artist Alex Meadows at NEON Gallery. When asked to collaborate, Alex and I attempted to measure the volume of ourselves in the space.

Tiers for Fears 2016

performance

Visions from the Seventh Chapel 2017

Visions from the Seventh Chapel was a collaborative performance and installation directed and performed by Patrick Michael Ballard and Nathan Bockelman. The piece revolved around a narrative through which the two performers utilize found and composed audio, objects, and choreography to animate three etherial effigies from the enigmatic "7th Chapel". The piece was installed at Loyola Marymount's Laband Art Gallery, and activated the threshold of the gallery into a proscenium theater on the night of the opening. The work was commissioned through the curatorial vision of Anthony Bodlović for an exhibition titled Psychopomp.

Jubilee  2013

performance and installation in collaboration with artist Joe Biel

Jubilee involves a performer enacting a series of determined actions with a series of determined objects, but the sequence and duration of actions is largely chance determined. The work is an amalgamation of strategies and has affinities to the actions of Bruce Nauman, the chance works of John Cage, and the absurdist theater of Samuel Beckett. Direct narrative is avoided in favor of a more allegorical approach, where the gallery/studio and subsequent actions within it, may suggest a wide range of possible meanings and associations. The nature of Jubilee is essentially modular and is designed so that it could be realized in a variety of future spaces and contexts.

Follow the Green Pill 2013

This was a performance made in collaboration with artist Patrick Ballard for a group show titled “Slag Manifesto” curated by Joey Cannizzaro at Cal Arts in Valencia, CA. 

A person dressed in a ‘green pill’ outfit appeared and danced around inviting a crowd of people to follow them to the outskirts of the campus in a forested area. The crowd followed and were lead to a light shining on a mobile type object hanging from the trees in this forested area and a large box lying on the ground directly below. As the pill danced around the box eventually a light lit up from inside and a voice began speaking. The voice would vaguely talk about imagining a world ‘outside’ and what ‘life’ would look like. As the voice continued to talk and ask itself questions the crowd began to try to interact and talk to the voice. The voice seemed to speak unaware a crowd was there, ignoring its questions and demands. The crowd grew more frustrated with the box, yelling at it, pouring drinks on it, and trying to get inside of it. Eventually the crowd picked up the box and carried it down the path back to the campus only to discarded half way back. As the last of the crowd slowly left choosing not to talk to the box anymore, the performance ended.