Exalted
Freiräume Friedenau, Berlin, Germany

Exalted emerges from the experience of being shaped by a country in turmoil, and how that weight settles into the body. It considers what it means to leave a place that could take your life, and how leaving does not release you from it. The body continues to carry what was survived, alongside the shame of distance from those who remain.

At the center of the performance is a wooden cross embedded with 33 nails, each acting as a point of accumulated strain. I place my body onto its surface, entering sustained contact as a form of endurance.

The work moves from holding pain into releasing it. Each nail is pulled out one by one. A structure built from pain is dismantled by the same body that held it.

As the cross is destroyed, the fragments of that pain are gathered and formed into something new. “Do not be afraid.” (Matthew 28:10)

The words are spoken by Jesus after the resurrection, offered in a moment of fear and uncertainty to steady those who remain. They do not close what has happened, but move through it, marking a continuation after rupture.

The performance closes with a single candle passed from one person to the next, each lighting the words “Do not be afraid” until the phrase is fully illuminated. The work moves outward, held collectively as the words come into light.

Exalted considers transformation as something lived through the body, shaped over time, and carried in relation to others.

Photography by Sam Castille and Getsay.