"Broken: Part I" | Performance by Shannon Sullivan

” Broken: Part I” – a poetic solo, in which hundreds of egg shells were used.

I’m interested in the physical breaking of things – the explosiveness, the sound – but also breaking things in a larger context – limitations, expectations, obstacles. Breaking is often seen as something negative or destructive, but it can also mean a transformation – a breaking of illusions, of outer shells, an emergence or emancipation. In “Broken: Part I” I examine the transformative power of breaking, of being broken down to one’s essence. Each text uses a broken body part as a springboard and goes on to explore the larger meaning of broken parts, broken structures.

The texts are based on physical “broken parts” – broken body parts. In bones, joints and muscles function determines/ influences structure; structure determines function. What happens to the functioning of a system – bodily or societal – when it’s structure has been broken? It is an opportunity for reorganization, reinvention.