Friendzone is proud to present “The Comfort of Flowers on My Back”, a solo show by Sylvie Hayes-Wallace.

Recently, I’ve had trouble existing here and the heat sometimes makes me feel like my brain is hollow, like if I start to work or stand for a while. The movement of my body is so quick that the worlds I enter into just seem to present themselves with my body somehow existing within them. I try not to think about how I got here but instead just proceed into these places. Someone asked me if I would return anytime soon and I got so confused by the blunt acknowledgement of place, like somehow it distracted my ideas of existing in all of the places I have lived in and learned from, or it offered a sudden reminder that I was no longer there.

My air conditioner is running in full action now. This is probably the first time I have felt chilly since back, besides the goosebumps I sometimes get from walking outside in the heat. As I was leaving, I wrote about looking out the window and seeing light reflecting against the plastic wing, and how the color of the reflection was the exact color of the clouds that we were passing through. The environments seemed to fit naturally, and the speed of travel felt similarly faultless. I wasn’t coming or going, but instead seemed to occupy an isolated space that I had to be in at that exact time. We were going so fast that the speed seemed to linger. The subtle vibration of the noise cancelling headphones they gave me for the flight offered a gentle rhythm to contain the experience. I felt the airiness of existing that almost makes you forget who you are; a feeling interrupted only when someone calls you by your name and you quickly remember the person to your body, and the endpoint of the journey. I couldn’t move outside of that air because I knew that moment of knowing exactly what was would soon end. I no longer exist in a time with precision, and it is hard to tell if I am the one moving through space, or if I am fixed, and everything around me is what is moving with such constant motion.

I think about an image I saw there that has stayed with me. When I was laying in bed yesterday afternoon; a young boy was sitting next to me and he had a snake stretched across his body. Wrapping around his neck, her tail began just below his left shoulder. Her face appeared just below his groin. I went down to tease her and couldn’t stop. As I continued to play with her she grew wildly and started to look blue in the face. I was refusing to look her in the eyes when I began to notice light flashing. It felt like we were wrestling in unison, my fingers tightly teasing her mouth. We played back and fourth a bit, it got so hot I began to think that we were on a beach, one where the whole evening was infected by a golden tangerine light. Fully entrusted in her sweat, we continued, on the ground, our attempt to preserve the heat made of our bodily contact. The light got tired but our bodies left marks in the sand.

The opening reception will take place on Friday, February 10th from 6-9PM. The show will be on display until February 24th.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Chicago, Friendzone, Logan Square, Sylvie Hayes-Wallace, The Comfort of Flowers on My Back