Advanced Life Drawing : Sunny Side Up

For my mark of the body performance piece I plan on performing a science experiment that, for me at least, deals with the idea of creation, the creator, and the infinite universe. The experiment uses the mediums milk, food coloring, soap, and an egg. The project first begins with pouring milk into a white dish. After I pour a thin layer of milk into the dish, I then add the food coloring using the colors yellow, blue, and red (the primary colors). The food coloring will break up the pure white milk surface with circular blobs that will begin to mix together but will not mix entirely together. I then plan on adding a drop of soap which will cause the colors to swirl together, creating a constant movement within the dish. Once the colors have swirled together, I will crack an egg into the center of the mixture. Each element of this project is meant to symbolize a specific element of creation. The milk symbolizes the blank slate, or nothingness, that precedes creation. The food coloring is meant to symbolize the simple elements of creation. This is the reason I am choosing the primary colors; they represent that which cannot be created artificially. The drop of soap then represents that singular moment of creation, the colors mixing together simulating the creation of a new universe. The last step of the performance is the egg. The egg is meant to suggest a sun, which is the single most important element enabling life to exist and to thrive. The egg is also meant to embody the potential of life. The egg is an unfertilized chicken, meaning that the chicken did not mate before producing the egg, but it holds the potential to create life.

My piece is meant to make a statement on creation and the female creator, but it also alludes to the idea of the infinite universe. I am creating a universe within my own universe, which is essentially an idea either unexplored or not fully or sufficiently explored that we have yet to fathom. Within this concept, the idea of a human creator, or more importantly the female creator, is illustrated in my piece by the fact that I am a female creating my own universe. This idea is meant to make a statement about the sexual bias applied to the idea of a creator, who is almost always assumed to be male when the being who actually creates and is associated with creating life is the female. Certainly, and unfortunately, a female is never associated with creating something as substantial as the universe. I have expanded on this idea of gender bias in my use of cooking utensils. This is meant as a comment on the fact that women are still generally, if not commonly, associated with their “rightful” place being in the kitchen; but it also, in turn, pokes fun at that idea because it is a woman who is exploiting this offensive idea and placement and creating something as substantial as a new universe.

Roman Ondak was one artist I discovered who I feel influenced my piece, specifically his project Measuring the Universe. The reason I found him interesting is because his piece also deals with a blank slate, in this case blank gallery walls which gradually change as more and more elements are added, specifically as visitors measure themselves on the gallery walls.

Sunny Side Up Score:
1. Pour a thin layer of milk in a white bowl
2. Add drops of yellow, red and blue food coloring
3. Add one drop of soap
4. Crack an egg and add yoke to the center
5. Watch it move