this body public

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Johannson Projects
Oakland, California
21 Mar - 11 Apr 2014

Mycelium is the largest organism on the planet. It is the collective root structure from which all mushrooms emerge. It lives three inches under the ground and can span for thousands of acres. Any of its threads can connect to the collective body at any point.

this body public features canvases embroidered with language from Saint Spero’s book almost any shit will do. connected across gallery by languid, cotton string, these poetic fragments pull language from mycelium studies to investigate the underground of political unrest, marking the shifting boundary between the individual and the movement in the midst of riot, an attempt to articulate the utopia that is always already happening, three inches below the surface.

The exhibition culminated with the release of Saint Spero’s first book, almost any shit will do.

this body public was Saint Spero’s thesis exhibition as part of Mills College’s MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing Program, the culmination of over two years combined artistic practice of studio art, creative writing, and book art.

For the opening of this body public, Saint Spero performed work from almost any shit will do. For this piece, they reaa passages from the book at random, layering certain phrases through a loop pedal. then collapsed beside a contact mic adhered to the gallery floor. They got back up, gathered themself, opened the book at random, and began to read over the looping sound of their body striking the ground.

This pattern continued—the attempt to read interrupted by the body’s collapse—a dense rhythm accumulating as their voices swelling into cacophony. Eventually, they lowered themself to the floor and lay facing the ceiling, vocal mic in their mouth, breathing into the loop, drowning out all language.

This performance documentation consists of a video turned towards the audience, Saint Spero’s body out of frame,