ENTERTAINMENT > FOR BEST RESULTS:
The stage is set for the beginning of the performance (Becs Epstein/Mixed Realities TA)
…Becoming Invisible is a seven minute durational performance in which the artist strips down and gently washes each article of clothing on a washboard that has been passed down to them through generations. After hanging the clothing to dry he is left in heart boxers and an undershirt and begins washing their own body. Just as gently as before, careful and thorough, he takes his time and when finished lays down and rests. “Everything Stays” by Rebecca Sugar then begins to play though it is not Rebecca who sings it, it is the artist three years prior before having started hormone therapy who sings the song. The audience is left with a QR code that warns to not step on the grass and leads to care instructions while the artist lays quietly listening to the birds and their younger self singing about time slowly changing how things are seen.
Eros gently removes articles of clothing and washes them (Becs Epstein)
In the spring of 2022 a record breaking number of anti-trans legislations were being enacted; a hundred seventy four bills being introduced with twenty nine of them passing. These bills ranged from discrimination in workplaces, schools, mandatory reporting from teachers in certain states and denying non-binary birth certificates among many many other restrictive and harmful laws. This “record breaking number” as I am writing in the fall of 2025 has since been surpassed with- bitterly said - flying colors and my sentiments remain the same if not more exhaustingly said.
During this initially record breaking time, I was a sophomore in college enrolled in a class called “Mixed Realities” that was dual credit in art and technology and performance, taught by collaborators Mark Jeffery and Judd Morrissey- I also happened to be a year and a few months into medically transitioning with hormone therapy. Keeping all of these things in mind, and heart, I was angry, tired, uncertain about the future, worried about queer and trans community safety, working through finals, and discovering what it meant to be comfortable in my own body while visibly queer and trans.
A large part of being socially and politically ‘othered’ is to be hyper visible and invisible, put as a punching bag for monetary and political gain and having needs ignored as you are seen as a statistic and not truly a physical person. Invisibility is a layered state of being, still present yet not seen and in many cases not heard, noted by lack of physicality. There is a section from the Fluxus Performance Workbook, a sixty or some-odd page book full of a wide range of performance “scores” for artists to perform, enhance, interpret, you name it, that is named Become Invisible.
Become Invisible
a) by hiding
b) by divesting yourself of all distinguishing marks
c) by going away
d) by sinking through the floor
e) by becoming someone else
f) by concentrating so hard on some object or idea that you cease to be aware of your physical presence
g) by distracting everybody else from your physical presence
h) by ceasing to exist
1966
What does it mean to be in front of an audience, physically visible and on display, and yet sinking away from their vision, disappearing into your own physicality. For Best Results: Becoming Invisible is a sister piece to FOR BEST RESULTS. These two pieces in tandem talk about material differences, how care for one may be damaging to another. At risk of over simplification, there is no right way to care for yourself and others during difficult times, and I do not use the word difficult lightly, nor the word care for that matter. There is a time for anger and movement, being heard and seen, and there is a time for quiet care, gentle washing and seeing.
The performance winds down while Eros carefully washes himself and clothing hangs to dry (Becs Epstein)
By EROS C BACKUS | eroscbackus@gmail.com | heart boxers, square of turf, heirloom washboard, care and tenderness, biblical allusions, everyday clothes
Originally Made: May 7th, 2022