Carlo's Red Green Performance

Ling-Wen Tsai took these photos of the performance I organized for Carlo Pittore's Mail Art Exhibit opening reception in September 2004 at June Fitzpatrick's High Street Gallery here in Portland. Ling-Wen, a sculpture professor at MECA, lent me her Beginning Performance students that night, and we did an impromptu dance on the sidewalk in front of the gallery. Earlier that day I harvested flowers, lime basil and garlic from our garden in Woolwich, to decorate the gallery doorway, and to use in the performance. We sprinkled the sidewalk with the aromatic basil, and holding bouquets of garlic and basil, formed an arch for folks to pass through on their way into the gallery. Basil and garlic were Carlo's favorites, and I wanted to cheer him with their combined fragrance. I also had the thought that they might create a medicinal magic of sorts. Carlo sat smiling in a chair in the yard - he was feeling weak, but he thoroughly enjoyed himself. People told me later me that they could smell the basil from blocks away that night.

Ling-Wen Tsai

Perform I,II,and III, 2004

Red Green Performance, 2004

(top photo, clockwise from left) Martha Miller, Kaitlyn Miller, Meghan Yates, Yumiko Murakami, Kristen Sheehy, Stefani Loeb, Patricia Brace.