“I Will Hurt You is a series of over forty video works originally created for a weeklong residency at @performancearthouston. The videos were born out of a project I had begun with my partner at the time, Tyler. Our project, Following, was a collaborative effort that explored the ebbs and flows of a queer, long distance love mediated through contemporary technologies. How is love communicated from one screen to another? How are our physical bodies translated into digital forms - and how do these forms engage with one another? The videos are a collection of short stories, makeup tutorials, video diaries, music videos, and short films.

I was largely inspired by the way we consume images on instagram - we just as soon watch someone apply eyeshadow as we do see a friend grieve the death of a loved one, whilst an ad based on our browser history shows us new shoes. This is nothing new; images lose value, impact lessens, the heart falters and love dies. But what I find compelling is less our complicity in this, and more our attempts at breaking out. The works I made for Instagram are love letters, honest and desperate, dressing up as the things we so easily consume. They are onions worth unpeeling, containing truths towards the way love is collapsed and mediated through the digital, but masquerading as minute long morsels..”