The Pathics is a multimedia project consisting of two companion pieces: pathics of the palaestra and strigil sessions.
pathics of the palaestra, performance, 2022
Otion Front Studio, Brooklyn
In antiquity, “pathic” described men who were passive partners in sexual relationships; the word has also come to designate experiences of illness and suffering. As the pathics’ presence in the archives is scant, I designed and fabricated everyday objects to illuminate their homosocial context. One such object, a cleaning instrument called a strigil, was found in the baths of the palaestra, the ancient wrestling schools where pathics were known to congregate. In the performance pathics of the palaestra, I attach a contact mic to a bronze strigil while scraping my skin clean in order to capture the sonic textures of these spaces. I compose a narrative through fragments of my research and personal reflections on my experience of autoimmune illness.
strigil sessions, four-channel video installation with eight-channel sound, 2022-2023
strigil sessions was created with the participation of other queer men in my Brooklyn studio during spring/summer 2022. After oiling them up and covering them in sand and pumice powder, I recorded them cleaning themselves with the strigil. I edited two hours of footage down into shorter clips and used the software Isadora to play these clips on a randomized loop, endlessly generating new moments of visual synchronicity and spontaneous dialogue. The installation conjures spaces like bathhouses or locker rooms with their multiplicity of voices and bodies (whose fragmentation of torsos and legs alludes to the visual forms of dating apps like Grindr).
