Inspired by the persistent anxiety and fear filling my chest since early 2020, this performance piece creates a physical representation to how I felt throughout the past year and a half--the continual uncertainty, grief, loss, and tragedy. .
I begin the piece fidgeting with a rope, nervously, then I start tying knots. Each knot symbolizes the 428 days from Baltimore city’s lock down until the day I was fully vaccinated. The accumulation of the knots fills the table, my arms, and my entire chest cavity (physically and metaphorically). I then begin untying knots. I untie 86 knots symbolizing the number of days from the day I was fully vaccinated until the rise of the Delta variant changed the game once again. At this point, I start re-tying knots, more dread, more uncertainty, more fear.
The piece took me an hour. By the end, my arms were sore and heavy. I was exhausted. You can watch a timelapse of the performance here: https://www.norahowellart.com/rope
Peter Bruun who generously wrote about the piece, summed it up as, “Deceptively simple, At the End of My Rope is a tale of unfolding existential dread—her own and Ours.”
I know many of you share this feeling of existential dread.The piece will obviously not take the anxiety away but know you are not alone.