Conditional love

you are deserving of love (exactly the way you are)

I have spent most of my life fielding an incessant monologue of perceived shortcomings and thus “reasons” that I am somehow not worthy of love. “I’m not kind enough to be loved. If I was more patient, people would like me more. I should be more generous if I want people to spend time with me.” I have wasted so much time thinking about how much more people will love me once I “fix” all the things about myself that I don’t like.

But recently I started to think, what if I approached a performance piece as if I was worthy of love? And what if I told my audience that they were too? I’m not offering any definitive solution to finding unconditional love, but I am naming some reasons that I am willing to love myself and accept love from others. “Conditional Love” is a practice, that extends far beyond the container of the performance installation, of engaging in radical self-love and reflecting that love towards others. This work is a whole interactive world of love saturated in easily-accessible commercial commodification. “Conditional Love” involves audience interaction, singing, humor, feelings of inadequacy, and joy. It’s performance art, dance, and conservative post-modern burlesque.