The Line We Walk was a performance artwork centered on the shifting ideas and mentalities that people keep with them. Social conditioning and conscious choice. The project uses the simple act of walking along a line to show the complex inner process of unlearning and re-learning what shapes each individual’s worldview. Through movement, written expression, and dialogue, the work invites both the artists and the participants to examine how ideas encountered early in life contrast with the values they now choose to carry into the present.
The performance begins with a line laid out on the floor, separating the art in half. One side of the line represents everything a person learned early: inherited ideas, social expectations, cultural messages, and assumptions had during childhood and adolescence. These messages or teachings often arrive before we have the language or agency to question them, and they tend to shape the foundation of how we understand ourselves and others. To make this visible, I placed sheets of paper along each side, each containing an idea that was pushed on me early. It didn't have to be said directly for me to learn it. For other people it can be anything, it can include norms around gender, success, family, emotion, strength, or identity. Ideas that many people discover later in life are limited, biased, or simply outdated. “As artistic activists, we're interested in influencing people's decisions and actions, but loss aversion makes this harder… We need to emphasize the things they have to gain, while assuaging their fears of what they might lose… people think more about the potential costs than the benefits… because they tend to be unreasonably loss averse.” Chapter six, Persuasion, In the Art of Activism.
The other side of the line represents what a person actively chooses to know now. Beliefs learned through experience, empathy, self-awareness, education, and personal growth. It's to show how different one can change and what ideas challenge older assumptions. “In order for us, as artistic activists, to employ facts in effective ways, it will be useful for us to have at least a basic understanding of how our minds and brains work. We can then present facts in ways that people can understand, integrate, and, most critically, act upon.” Chapter five, Cognition, In the Art of Activism
As someone walks along the line, they physically embody the tension between early conditioning and present-day choice. The Line We Walk invites people to participate directly in the process. Audience members are not just viewers, they can add to the piece. After being shown the contrasting sides of the line, they are encouraged to talk about ideas that have changed for them over time. These conversations open a vulnerable space where participants can name the beliefs they once accepted without question and articulate how their perspectives have shifted. “We believe in what we already believe in, and you will never win the argument with your uncle, but, then again, he won't win it either. Arguing more fiercely for what you believe in is easier than admitting you're wrong and changing your mind. It gets worse still. Many of our neural pathways are created when we are young and—quite literally—impressionable. As we grow up, we develop ways of making sense of the world that ‘work’ for us.” Chapter five, Cognition, In the Art of Activism
People can then write the evolving thoughts on pieces of paper and place them on the appropriate side of the line. This act externalizes something deeply internal. The evolution of oneself and one's values. By laying their words on the ground, participants literally see the distance between what they once believed and what they believe now. Some may notice contradictions, others may notice parallels. The line becomes like a map of growth drawn from many individual journeys.
The performance piece reveals how powerful it is to visualize internal change. The Line We Walk offers a space to recognize the change in yourself and to embrace the agency we have in shaping our own understanding. The art transforms a physical line into a big distance from past you to the present you. “All Successful Activism Has Been Artistic Activism.” Chapter three, History, In the Art of Activism. The inspirations for this work was Isabel Leon's work with tape and emotional performance art, Joan Jones for her pieces that talk about the present and the way we think in a way that's eye catching, and Zhang Huan who blurs the lines a bit between the past and the present, while using his body in his work.
Walking art meets art education: towards a synthesis of methods by Panagiotis Dafiotis (2018)
Embodied Theater Ecology: Unearthing authentic, creative language in arts-based practice (2024)
The body as memory and resistance in Marton Robinson's performance art - on the work of Marton Robinson
Performance Art - by Roselee Goldberg
Walking: The creative and mindful space between one step and another - Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
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