2004

I Dismantle revolves around a single costume made by Lesley Dill. Constructed out of silk and cotton material, the dress at its widest measures 30 feet in diameter (9 meters). The performance of I Dismantle produced and filmed by Christina Redfern took place in Brooklyn, New York with Manhattan as a backdrop to the actions. Megan Moorehouse performs the work with Andrea Ryder, Maggie Odell, Ariana Boussard-Reifel and Molly Lloyd. The accompanying music is by Lesley Dill and Tom Morgan, sung by the Ars Nova Singers from Boulder, Colorado.

The performer walks in costume, wearing 20 rolled up scrolls of language. In many ways, this is what we do in life: we carry our language with us all the time. The performer stops. Four women come quietly to her; slowly they start to unravel, to dismantle, and to express her language out into the world. They unroll the fabric panels with care and gentleness, as if they are tending her, midwiving her words out. The language on the cloth is from an Emily Dickinson poem, it reads “A Single Screw of Flesh is all that Pins the Soul”. At the end, the language, on wide fabric strips, radiates out in every direction from her. The acappella music includes murmurs, swells of volume and an operatic quality. As it rises to a crescendo, two veils, one white and one red, are rolled over her translucent face. She is now the speaking body writ large and the smaller mouth of the linguistic face can be muted. There is a 6 minute performance DVD.