christian messier performed utilizing the colors white and burgundy. white towel, red towel, white flour, red wine, red pepper. he utilized repetition of gesture; rubbing, drinking, licking, hitting. he used fire, flour, wine, wine-glass, pepper plant, towels. he sat in a chair, then he crouched on the floor. he got naked, he vomited, he lit his head (covered in a cloth) on fire.

his body was treated as a material that he acted upon. he drank a bottle of wine, pouring the wine into a wine-glass and then creating that eerie sound that comes from rubbing your wet finger over the rim of the glass. he drank the wine and poured himself another glass, rubbing his wet finger over the rim of the glass, drinking, pouring, rubbing.

then he set his head on fire. a calm fire in comparison to gwendoline blowing her head off, but a fire all the same. then he ate the peppers from the pepper plant and proceeded to vomit.

copious amounts of liquid. red liquid seeped down into the deep end of the pool in long red lines. the place began to stink like vomit.

christian got up out of his chair and undressed till he was naked. then he took a bag of flour and put it on the floor. crouching down in a kind of classical pose he licked his finger and stuck it into the flour, took his finger out of the flour and put his flour encrusted finger into his mouth. then he began to lick himself and rub flour over his body, making his flesh white, as white as flour.

at one point he held the bag up over his head and poured the flour into his mouth and over his head.

taking his fist he hit himself in the chest. he repeated this gesture, gradually hitting himself faster and with more vigour until his chest and his hand were red, or rather; burgundy. the colour of the wine he had drunk and vomited onto the floor.

i had an interesting response to this performance. usually, or in the past, i would have wanted to leave the room. i find performances where self harm is enacted especially difficult to endure. but with christian my response was different. i felt somehow removed, distant. i am not sure if this was because of the almost casual manner in wich he enacted his self-harming gestures, or if it was because i read his actions as separate from his person, as if christian was separate from his body.

i am wondering if this is part of what christian is performing. enacting the gestures in an almost dispassionate way so as to remove any emotional charge. so it becomes a matter of fact: this body is vomiting, this head is on fire, this mouth opens and chews and swallows red peppers, this fist hits this chest.

at the end of the performance christian surprised me with exhaling into the air a white plume of flour. from his mouth flour rose into the air. an act that felt quite magical, reminding me of bbb when he was reaching into the audience and catching our spirits with his hands.

christian messier: http://www.pagede.com/christianmessier.htm