Apology Project

For this performance project, a group of people were invited to wear large paper bags over their heads and upper bodies, revealing their eyes only through two small holes. The performers were asked to stand in a tight cluster at the entrance of a gallery and to thus restrict the flow of visitors entering and leaving the space. They were instructed to only engage with the audience by saying I am sorry. The artist conceived this piece as a way to criticize passive aggressive behavior, and false apologies in particular. In the piece, performers apologize for obstructing the entrance yet do no move; they wear paper bags over their bodies in apparent remorse but do not change their actions to rectify the problem. The tension between pretending to be sorry and actually meaning it and changing one’s behavior accordingly is at the root of what is explored in this work