Death Cleaning

All Roman Susan events are free to the public. Seating for these performances is limited. To ensure maximum attendance, there is a $20 charge to reserve your seat(s). The reservation price will be refunded to you in-person at the event. If for any reason the refundable RSVP fee is a barrier for you to attend, please reach out to us directly.

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Ruthless and regretful in a cloud of haunted dust, utterly owned by your belongings, you persist with death cleaning. It’s a ritual. It’s a chore. And no one rushes forward to help except the psychotherapist and the spiritualist. Your relics and hoardings want to slip free of meanings. They’re absurd, sad, embarrassing. But they’re hopeful survivors.
Carole McCurdy in collaboration with Paul Escriva
Installation, text, and video by Carole McCurdy
Performance devised by Carole McCurdy
Performers: Carole McCurdy and Judith Harding
Go ahead, K*ll your darlings—they’re immortal anyway.

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Carole McCurdy is a Chicago-based artist whose movement-based work addresses grief and anxiety, duty and resistance, and the absurd mysteries of embodiment. She has performed at spaces including the Chicago Cultural Center, Epiphany Dance, Links Hall, Hamlin Park, High Concept Laboratories, Defibrillator Gallery, and Movement Research (NY). She received a 2016 Lab Artist award from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum and was a Fall 2016 Sponsored Artist at High Concept Laboratories, Chicago. She created and directed an ensemble piece, WAVER, with support from CDF, HCL, and 3Arts Chicago, and most recently created Just Passing Through (2021–22), a video, installation, and performance shown at Roman Susan gallery. For more information, please visit carolemccurdy.com.
Paul Escriva began exploring performance art with Frank Moore in Berkeley in the 1980s. He is inspired by Annie Sprinkle, Chilli Pepper, and Linda Montano. Escriva has been privileged to serve as midwife to the dying, having lost forty friends to HIV/AIDS, and his work investigates the queer body’s health within the community. His performance work has been shown extensively over thirty years, receiving a grant from the Alphawood Foundation.

Host or Publisher Roman Susan