In “Practice for the Afterlife” I share my art making process - that is, how a woman makes art, telling my family story and the unfolding recognition of age. The performance took place during the exhibition "Dear Womanhouse, What Now?" in an 1836 house in Manchester, MI. I spoke a section of the seven part poem in each room. At the Art Kettle, Manchester, MI, 2018.
"Practice for the Afterlife" was listed in EMERGENCY INDEX: AN ANNUAL DOCUMENT OF PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, VOL. 8, 2019, an annual print publication documenting performances that occurred in one calendar year. https://emergencyindex.com
The chapbook, Practice for the Afterlife, with the full poem and photos of the robe is available: mparkerst@gmail.com
Find a PDF of the full poem is HERE.
Practice for the Afterlife - Clothing Myself
1. making it
I’m practicing
I’m preparing
procrastinating
stuttering
no, that’s not it
try again….
I’ll clothe myself in beauty
I’ll stitch it with my own hands
I’ll fit it to my own body
patterned after my own life
mixed with the colors
I use again and again
ultramarine, lemon yellow
alizarin crimson, mars black
sprung from visions behind my eye,
battered against my breast bone,
pushed their way out onto paper,
squeezed out in ink, brushed on with sable,
then erased, torn up, pasted back together
till they ooze blood or toxic turpentine,
until they’re finally finished, or just left behind
stacked up in the corner, stored in steel drawers,
pressed behind glass, lost on the hard drive,
sold off, given away, or kept for myself
filling up my studio
above the family store.