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Sethe’s Back (2010)

The muse for this performance is the character Sethe from Toni Morrison’s Beloved. In the novel, Sethe talks about having a chokecherry tree on her back. The ‘tree’ being a scar from being whipped while she was enslaved. I found the description of this tree to be horrific, and eerily beautiful; and was haunted by visions of it in my dreams. After many conversations around the complexities and inherited trauma surrounding interracial relationships, I asked a dear friend to carve Sethe’s tree unto my back using a book-maker’s awl. The experience was overwhelming and exhausting. I haven’t dreamt of Sethe’s tree since.