I haven’t shown work in Pittsburgh since June or July of 2007, when a one-act play version of Beyond Dirt Knees was produced by Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival. I was only an audience member, just the writer.

A lot has changed since that summer: matured into my thirties while living in Seoul; fell in love, twice; found life beyond myself (Home Soil); tasted of bodies and bodies of taste have expanded; learned quite a bit; forgot most wild nights; always remembered who to trust; waited patiently, and then bounced to the not-so-sleepy seaside of Brighton and into the awkward comforts of academia; nurtured my practice; read and reread; wrote; got dirty. And now, I find myself proximate to a strange familiarity. It’s complicated and, at times, thrilling—always close.

On Saturday, June 11 I will share work at Bunker Projects‘ Performance Art Festival 2016. In the area behind a curved window at SPACE in downtown Pittsburgh, I will sit for Cosmetic Confessional. One by one, participants are invited to whisper an insecurity or trouble into my ear. First, they must select a brush & a powder, or a tube of lipstick, perhaps a bottle of polish. They should then enter the space and use these implements (however they like) to make me “beautiful”. I’ll be a blank canvas for cosmetics, a repository for secrets—I am your confessor.

This is the first time I’ve revisited this one-to-one performance since my visit to Bath Artists Studios in March 2014. I’ve made some necessary amendments and believe this iteration will be its clearest richest yet.

Do you have anything you’d like to confess?

Cosmetic Confessional
Saturday, June 11 from 4 until 10 PM
Space
812 Liberty Ave,
Pittsburgh, PA 15222