Art on the Edge of Fashion Performance
Photo by Kim Adams
GREGORY SALE - "Testing Waters"
was based on the perspective of a gay man and exposed the personal dilemmas
of being an "AIDS widow," i.e., a surviving partner of a person
who died of AIDS. Sale's performance involved one object/costume, as well
as a portable changing booth consisting of a collapsible metal frame with
stretched fabric curtains.
The object/costume consisted of two pairs of padded canvas britches connected
by a sixteen-foot padded canvas appendage, much like the trunk of an elephant.
The object/costume was from a collaborative body of work entitled, "A
Fairy Tale", by Sale and his deceased life partner Ronald James Winterrowd
which dealt with love and commitment in same-sex relationships. This was the
first time that the object/costume had been used in a performance. "Testing
Waters" questioned whether or how to fill the void that the death of
a life partner has created. The goal of the piece was to expose the complexity
of experimenting with new acquaintances that could evolve into relationships
and it investigates issues raised by this experimentation.
The work was presented as part of a project grant from the Arizona Commission
on the Arts.
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