Balancing the Towers was a performance experiment that utilized weight and balance to explore themes of labour, gender, and trust. The project continued the artist's inquiry into how much weight their body could hold. It involved the artist donning a wearable table contraption and stabilizing two towers of champagne glasses. Champagne was served from one tower and water from the other. The artist's arms and shoulders supported the device, weighing over 50 pounds, as they wore high heels. The guests determined the duration of the performance; it concluded when the last glass was taken. Despite multiple probable outcomes, no glasses shattered, though the artist almost collapsed near the end of the performance.

This project examined the gendered expectations placed on women and femme bodies, using physical exertion as a metaphor for emotional labour. With a focus on balancing—a critical factor in weightlifting—the artist reflected on weight as a symbol. According to the Oxford Dictionary, balance is "an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady" and "a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions." By examining how much weight the artist's body could balance under precarious circumstances, the project aimed to provoke thoughts about the prevalence of misogynistic worldviews and the entrenched binary gender roles that accompany them.

Balancing the Towers was performed on November 4th, 2022, at the Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto, Canada, as part of the book launch for Heidi Sopinka's Utopia.

Special thanks to Heidi Sopinka, Jill Connell, Ahmed, Ishan Davé, and the Daniel Faria Gallery.

Documentation Credit: Polina Teif