Man becomes wall: Inside a student’s performance art piece

Have you ever encountered the question “what do you want to become?” at some point in your life? It is not a usual answer, but Henry Parker-Elder, a junior majoring in theater and cinema and media studies, wanted to become a wall.  

Elder began sitting in the corner against the wall on the second floor of the Physical Education Building Monday afternoon as a performance art project for his class, “Theater on the Edge.” The class discusses performance in its various forms. 

“PED currently is the home of the School of Dramatic Arts … so to become part of the wall, I’m implying that the building itself is the stage,” Elder said. 

As a creative response to a class assignment — the concept of Bauhaus — which contains the idea that the stage is not the complete performance space, Elder decided to embody a wall to reflect the concept’s idea about taking something human and making it into something non-human. 

Elder has been sitting in the spot for more than 24 hours with help from his friends to receive necessities like food, blankets and toilet paper. 

“I feel very zen, which is a weird feeling that I wouldn’t expect to feel, but something about sitting on the floor and being in this space and just kind of existing with all the ambiance … a lot of it has been kind of meditative for me,” Elder said.

Elder’s performance art project will end either when he “becomes the wall” or Wednesday afternoon at two.