This is a three-act interactive performance, a sequel to a work first presented two years prior. Participants go into a space of intimacy and introspection, transforming personal memories into shared acts of vulnerability, liberation, and catharsis.

Act One: Upon entering the room alone, one by one, each participant is instructed to walk across a shallow pool of water, reflecting on phrases or statements from their past—words spoken by others that have marked them, lingering long after their utterance. Then, emerging from the water, they dry their feet and meet the artist in the same space. Inspired by traditions such as the Māori custom of washing hands upon entering and exiting a urupā (cemetery) to acknowledge and cleanse spiritual energy, this act sets the tone for a sacred, reflective space.

Act Two: The participant then reach the artist sitting on on a chair with a marker. The participant inscribe these remembered phrases onto the artist’s body, placing their chosen words wherever they wish. In this act, the artist becomes a canvas for the participants’ memories, turning her body into a repository of these indelible marks. This intimate act of inscription uses writing as a means of liberation, making visible the often-invisible weight words can carry.

Act Three: In the final act, all participants reconvene in the space. The water is replaced with fresh, clean water, symbolizing renewal. In a live bathing ritual, another performance artist scrubs the artist’s body, erasing each phrase with deliberate intensity. Echoing spiritual traditions such as Japanese misogi purification under waterfalls and the Christian ritual of baptism, this cleansing represents a symbolic release, a transition from burdened to unburdened. Here, both writing and water function as tools for release, a shared ritual that symbolically purges the written memories. As the words wash away, the participants and artist witness the cleansing power of water and language as mediums of transformation and liberation.

Through water and the written word, Cold-Blooded-Dermatographic-Locution creates a space akin to a confessional booth, where participants unburden themselves of unspoken memories. This performance explores the lasting impact of language, the marks it leaves upon us, and the healing potential embedded in vulnerability and shared purification.