ALEX H NICHOLS
STRINGS ATTACHED
2011-2013, 2021

WHAT ARE THE STRINGS/ROLES I AM BOUND TO?

WHAT IS THE BALANCE?
WHAT IS THE BREAKING POINT

SUSPENDED IN THIS PERFORMANCE THERE ARE TWO DESIRES.
DESIRE TO STAY SAFE. DESIRE TO BREAK FREE.

FALL, GET BACK UP. FALL, GET BACK UP.
AT THE EDGE OF PAIN AND FEAR IS THE CLARITY OF WHO WE ARE.

Strings can represent many things. Roles of a woman, an artist, a mother, a wife. Relationships to others, relationships to self. What does it mean to say ‘no strings attached’ or to break those strings? What am I without those strings?
The context is a female body, and the seemingly unmonumental act of a woman performing alone in the abandoned baths at the edge of the ocean. That ocean funnels into a bay and is spanned by the incredible monumentality of steel and cable that makes the Golden Gate bridge.The performance plays physically with the tensions of being ourselves. What I learn is something I understood clearly when I was a child building sand castles and forts. I am stuck with me.
WHAT AM I ASKING MYSELF?
​​
​
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ME?
​
​
WHAT AM I CAPABLE OF?
