MFA Thesis Performance No place like home
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion @ the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
May 7, 2013
Performance at 7 pm (*please arrive by 6:45 pm)

No place like home is a performance that at various times acts like a documentary or a lecture, with a narrator who weaves together images and sound through storytelling. Exploring the subjective perspective of first-person politics, the narrator tells a story of the rural town of Siler City, North Carolina, a community in significant transition both economically and demographically—much like the United States as a whole. This story is an interrogation of what meaning can be made of home when home is a distant place in ever-shifting territory. With characters such as a Ukrainian billionaire, a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard-turned-artist, Aunt Bee, even the poultry industry, this story engages with and articulates the impact of globalized economies upon existing historical, political and social situations. Drawing from an archive of material compiled through off-site research and visits to Siler City, the narrator peels back a veneer of complexity to reveal undercurrents of power, desire and histories that intertwine with contemporary issues of race, immigration and industrial decline.

Cathy McLaurin is an artist who uses performance, video, photography, drawing and writing to interrogate what is. Her practice is an investigation into the insidious slow drip of complacency that leads to the raging tidal wave of institutionalized systems.

cathymclaurin.com

Image Credit: Cathy McLaurin, still from No place like home, 2013