Disconsent: Faith

A durational participatory performance

Sit down, and I will tell you a story that someone has told me about a time when they consented or dissented in the context of religion or faith. You will then tell me this story back, “reversing” the terms of consent or dissent. This reversal can range from replacing the terms used in the original narrative (for example, replacing "yes" with "no") to inventing new details entirely. After that, you will tell me a story of your own about a time you consented or dissented in the context of religion or faith. This is the story I will tell as accurately as possible to the next person who sits down. My eyes will remain closed the entire time, while a camera records, trained only on me.

Disconsent: Faith is a live iteration of my broader Disconsent series, which examine the relationships between consent, which often takes the form of a speech act, and its imperfect opposite—dissent—which often exceeds speech to take the form of silence, protest, or other forms of bodily action. The sound of particpant's voices will be recorded, but not their image. When the recordings are eventually played back as part of the documentation for this work, no one will know the identity of the participants—save for their voice—or to whom any given story belongs.