Lesly - It's Okay To be Alone

My performance piece addresses the socio-political issue about one’s identity. In my video, I am recreating a moment in our life when we are stressed and feel alone. There is this stigma that feeling overwhelmed and depressed is not normal and that it can easily be solved. We’re all familiar with the feeling of being overwhelmed and struggling to maintain balance and perform adequately our responsibilities. I channeled my inner Marina Abramović, who used her art and converted it into a visual art form, using her body to explore her physical and emotional limits. For example, I sometimes carry this uncertainty as a student feeling unsure about my future. There are times where one gets lost in their head. Feeling alone questioning yourself but it is okay to ask for help. To normalize depression and anxiety. No longer be ashamed of your emotions that are kept bottled inside. People deal with stress in many different ways, some healthy and some unhealthy. This performance can inform others of how difficult it is to destress and to stop feeling depressed.


John Berger, Chapter 4 & 5

- “These relations between conqueror and colonized tended to the self-perpetuating. The sight of the other confirmed each in his inhuman estimate of himself. The circularity of the relationship can be seen in the following diagram - as also the mutual solitude. The way in which each sees the other confirms his own view of himself”.

- “From the tradition, a kind of stereotype of "the great artist" has emerged. This great artist is a man whose life-time is consumed by struggle: partly against material circumstances, partly against incomprehension, partly against himself. He is imagined as a kind of Jacob wrestling with an Angel”.