Spit, Swallow, Choke
In Spit, Swallow, Choke, Garski performs the lack of choice that marginalized subjects experience when they are expected to “eat the words” of authority figures who abuse their power.
Spit, Swallow, Choke
Durational performance with 12-foot scroll,
The Diego Rivera Gallery,
San Francisco, CA
45 minutes
2014
For this performance, a roll of heavyweight rice paper was suspended from the expansive 40-foot ceilings of The Diego Rivera Gallery. The paper was inscribed with a detailed account of the events surrounding a Title IX case filed against a professor who was known for making alarmingly misogynistic remarks in the classes that he taught as well as sexually intimidating and propositioning female students.
Performing as their alter ego, Velvet Rage, Garski attempted to consume the scroll of paper while lying vulnerable and naked on a bed of crushed grill charcoal laced with lighter fluid. Garski tore sections of the scroll with their teeth, laboriously chewed the heavy paper, attempting multiple times to swallow each piece before spitting the remnants out and moving on to the next piece.
The durational performance concluded when two thirds of the scroll was consumed. Garski rose, revealing their back coated in charcoal, and exited the gallery.
