Thick as Thebes

Artist(s): Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chuma, Claire Bernard, Nina Lundborg

Date: November 27, 1978-November 29, 1978

Thick as Thebes was a “movement and image collaboration” by Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chuma, Claire Bernard, and Nina Lundborg. Atop a carpeting of dirt and donning capes made of leaves, the performers engaged in a series of rites or ritualistic movements. At times, in the midst of an outburst of movement, they would simply cease, contrasting struggle and ease in order to destabilize naturalized assumptions about the progressions of the body’s energy, motion, and exertion. The performers interacted with each other, at one point coupling, lifting up their shirts, and touching stomachs. The piece ended with them simultaneously approaching the audience and burying their heads in the dirt at their feet.