After pouring honey over my head, I ask you to tell me your most bitter thing. Holding your gaze, I bring the blood-red beet to my mouth - and take a bite. The air is electric as each person spews or dribbles out the thing that feels most bitter to them. There is no right answer. 

Beginning STYLE WARS: American Gothic hosted by SFAQ

April 7, 2015 - 6:30 to 7pm.

449 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco

A performance with honey, sheepskin, paper, and a mason jar. I eat your most bitter thing and collect sweet things around my feet.

Sept. 9 and

Photos by Mido Lee

Five days of ritual performances. Pomegranate seeds, coconut oil, hair, and honeycomb toffee hide in cabinets and drawers. Pages of my private writing are strewn on the floor throughout the week.

May 15th-19th, 2013 in Vault 5 of San Francisco’s Old Mint.
88 5th St., San Francisco

Photos by Mido Lee

May I take your hand?

The viewer encounters the scent of flowering clementines and passes through crimson curtains into a small red room. I direct you to take some cold coconut oil from a chalice, and when seated, I ask to take your hands. In the heat between our palms, the fragrance spreads as oil drips through our fingers.

Feb 7 and 13, 2013 at Swell Gallery, 2565 Third Street, San Francisco Art Institute
Photos by Mido Lee

I taste a liquor never brewed -Emily Dickinson

I wash my hands, feet and hair with honey. The drippings from my face fall into a tall glass. Milk is slowly poured in, and with one smooth movement I quickly down it all. The honey conditions me to consume that which is nourishing and sweetly sacred.

April 13, 2012 at 2565 Third Street, San Francisco Art Institute

Photos by Elizabeth Cayne

In Collaboration with Elizabeth Jinkyo Chong

We sat quietly and still in the center of the rotunda and invited passersby and visitors to come take off their shoes and allow us to wash their feet- first in wine, then in water. A fortuitous moment happened, with the sun setting and the rain.

March 20, 2013 at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

Photos by Mido Lee

In collaboration with Thea Juliette Stevenson.

I greet each new visitor, inviting them to take part. Participants receive a handful of sand and travel the narrow pathway along the rocks to sit opposite Thea, "the woman on the rock." Extending a mirror before her face, the viewer is confronted with their own image against the horizon. Still and cold, covered in flies, she speaks a Celtic prayer amidst the roaring surf and fog.

September 1, 2012 at Sutro Baths, Lands End (San Francisco, CA)

Photos by Tony Maridakis

I mash a pile of blackberries with my hands into a bowl, pour olive oil into the juices, then finally pour the mixture over my head. An act of anointing.

2012 at 2565 Third Street, San Francisco Art Institute

Photos by Dimitra Skandali

The sweet, earthy beets are slippery when steamed. Skinning them is both a satisfying and heart-wrenching experience, almost sacrificial. After hand-picking the beets by their tails, I lovingly start rubbing them. My fingernails dig into flesh as I skin them one by one. The red stain goes deep- a residue on my memory.

April 3, 2012 in a garage at 658 Moscow Street, San Francisco

Photos by Missy Weimer

I offer the viewer wine or milk, and I pour two glasses. We toast. While the viewer drinks, my glass is simultaneously poured over my face, running down my chest. Their choice is my burden; their gift becomes my stain.

May 1, 2012 at 2565 Third Street, San Francisco Art Institute

Photos by Mido Lee