Bathtime? was a site-responsive performance art work that interrogated the intersections of identity, power, and the politics of performance. Developed and directed by Layna Wang, the piece unfolded through nine interconnected scenes built around a 250lb cast-iron clawfoot bathtub—a sculptural and symbolic anchor for themes of vulnerability, control, and artistic agency.
Part installation, part improvisation laboratory, Bathtime? brought together musicians, dancers, and visual artists in a collaborative devising process that was as vital as the performance itself. Over months of open-ended experimentation, participants explored movement, sound, and dialogue to grapple with questions like: What is a performing body? Who is allowed to be seen? Whose labor is invisible?
The performance blurred boundaries between performer and audience, stage and backstage. Central visuals included a mic’d bucket of water, mirrors, and a morph suit—objects that refracted themes of perception, gender, and surveillance. Performers shifted fluidly between roles, culminating in a raw group improvisation and audience talkback that extended the space of performance into communal processing.
Bathtime? was rooted in Wang’s lived experience as a gender- and racially-ambiguous artist shaped by classical music’s hierarchies. The project reclaimed performance as a site of consent, vulnerability, and transformation—not spectacle.
“An unforgettable, collaborative community of trust, safety, consent, and creative joy.” — Miri Verona, FSM.ink
Collaborators: Lorcan Baxter, Alex DeBello, Rebecca Page-McCaw, Jonah Sharp, Miri Villerius, Layna Wang Advisors: Margaret Paek, Loren Dempster, Sonja Downing
