untitled (Steamwork for Bellingham)

Drawing on Robert MOrris' sculpture, Untitled (Steamwork for Bellingham)'s themes of expectation, anticipation, and waiting embedded in the tension between what we can control and what we must wait for, this performance takes the audience through the politics of control in our contemporary political climate and the artist's own research with LGBTQ refugees. As we stand around the sculpture, waiting for the steam to come, anticipating its arrival and completion of the sculptural experience, I will tell stories of my experience navigating the politics of waiting and expectation in my research and everyday political life. There are many expectations: my collaborators expect that the US will offer them exceptional safety and comfort, they expect that with all my privilege, I can single-handedly secure their entry to the US, and I expect myself to be able to bring about political change while also producing scholarship and art, and, many of us expect the government to serve its people and behave in ways that it is currently rebuking. In the face of grand expectations, we can often grow overwhelmed by what we have control over and what we must endure. By waiting for the steam to arrive at Untitled, it is my hope that we can learn from the sculpture the politics of waiting, expectation, and control in our own political lives and in bringing about our visions for a better world.