The Residential is Political
The Residential is Political, is inspired by Peter Marcuse’s In Defense of Housing, reflecting the project’s focus on gentrification. The performance is rooted in extensive research and community engagement, including time spent with seniors at Holy Apostles and conversations with residents of the NYCHA Fulton and Chelsea Houses, as well as the below-market cooperative Penn South. These discussions, paired with observations on rezoning and housing in the Chelsea area, inform the site-specific content of the signs, which capture local concerns about housing changes. At the same time, the project emphasizes that gentrification is a global issue, drawing connections across shared struggles and experiences. These interviews provided the basis for a performance where I performed the interviews on The Highline. By addressing both local and international audiences, the signs bridge perspectives, offering localized insights while highlighting the universal nature of these challenges. This approach underscores the interconnections of housing issues worldwide. For the performance, I retold stories of people I interviewed stopping along the length of The Highline starting at 26th street to the 14th street entrance. At each stop I unpeeled a layer of my costumes representing each character, ending in a nightgown.
A link to video documentation of the performance can be found at New York University Libraries, Hemispheric Institute