Shane Dedman

Performed at the Bakery Atlanta for the group show Mass Hysteria curated by Leá Boulch in May of 2018

Aiming Away was performed by Shane Dedman, who throughout the piece played a trio of characters, acted to represent inequality in emotional labor. Dedman did so by changing clothes, accessorizing, pouring water from vessel to vessel, painting their face as a jester figure, and handing out roses to the audience. 

Aiming Away was performed using an audio recording of the original poem that you can listen to here.

Aiming Away

I've waited too long to set my boundaries

and now I seem as if a car alarm that is too sensitive,

having complaint at every street corner.

I go off at the twitch of your finger tips,

and the ride home

is

music too soft to hear the bass

in silent passing mirage.

This is what a psychiatrist once told me.

I sat with him for an hour,

diagnosed a label

that did everything but set me free.

I've taken to sleeping in longer

my dreams are finally those I wish I lived in,

not torturous of your only sin,

but filled with crowd-surfing

divinity.

They seem to get more complex

the more I spend time by myself,

redefining the worth of touch.

Is it so bad that I feel the currents

surrounding me?

A higher sense of understanding

everything, how it relates

to my progression.

I can see your flaws so bluntly,

and offer them up with tact,

but I would offend you.

Am I an Android;

a sponge of analytics

ringing out the condensation

of what I intake.