DO NOT STEP OVER ME, 2021, Performance, four hours, 600 Polaroid film

DO NOT STEP OVER ME, 2021, Performance, responses from viewers, pen and paper, 8”x10”

DO NOT STEP OVER ME, 2021, Performance, phone footage from viewers, one minute twenty three seconds

 

DO NOT STEP OVER ME, 2021, performance, vintage fur coat, and acrylic, four hours

This performance was an experiment about the social cues we take, the written demands we obey (or disobey), and the bodies we quite literally and metaphorically walk over. Kopenhaver played with guests upon their arrival to an art show that was two floors above. Every time a person passed, she did something new or nothing at all, with each potential interaction being completely unplanned. Viewers asked things like, "Do you live here?" "Check her pulse." "What if she's actually dead?" "Is this a question of my morality?!" "I'm going to step over you now." She was poked, prodded, kicked. A guest who is a firefighter lifted the coat off of her because his training kicked into gear. Some people were too afraid to touch or move her out of fear.

Better yet, some people filmed the occurrence, which led to a conversation and interaction about when we see happenings who helps and who doesn't and who stands by and films. Where is the line between filming an occurrence as an act of evidence or an act of selfish consumption? The only documentation of the performance is by phone footage of two viewers, a polaroid, and verbal responses that Kopenhaver wrote down.