Green Artists League

Savage Rituals

Erin Stack
Stephenie Strogney

Erin Stack and Stephenie Strogney collaborate annually on an interactive performance called a “Savage Ritual.”

“Savage Rituals”, Earth Day, 2008, Newburyport, MA

This roaming interventionist performance, addressed Americans’ ambivalent, veiled as romanticized, relationship to Nature. Our “friendly” polar bear offered gifts of cards to people on the street and in commercial establishments. These cards were inscribed with one of twenty-six “Savage Rituals”. These rituals, when performed, would press for a more intimate relationship with Nature and were often humorous and always challenging.

Selected Savage Rituals

1. For the duration of one month from this day, place a cup outdoors every time there is precipitation. Allow the cup to fill for as long as the rain or snow lasts. When the weather changes, drink the contents of the glass.
2. In your mind, determine a length of time: a specific number of hours, days, weeks, or years. Next, pick up a rock. Any size that you can carry is fine. Keep the rock with you at all times: in bed, in
   the shower, at work… Always have the rock within arm’s length of you. At the end of the specified time, return the rock to the exact location where you found it.
3. Assign a name and one character trait to every item you throw away or recycle today based either on a another piece of property, the item, or a feeling you were experiencing when you discarded it. Write all of these names and character traits down. At the end of the day, write a fictional story that uses all of these characteristics.
4. Locate sources of food. Find a produce, a dairy, and a meat farm nearest to the place where you slept last night. Walk to each of these food source locations some time this month.
5. Do not flush a toilet today.  If the toilet that you typically use seems to be in danger of exceeding its capacity, find another toilet.
6. Waste feed
   Take the remains of your dinner today. Place it outside as food for wild animals. Visit the remains morning, noon, and night, until all traces are gone.
7. Wind Turn
   Close your eyes and stand. Note the sensation of the wind on your skin. Turn to face the direction from which the wind is blowing. Open your eyes and walk in that direction until you can no longer feel the breeze on your face.
8. Conversation piece
   Place cheese on a decorative tray and place the tray in the center of the dinner table. Leave the tray for 8 weeks.
9. Think of an animal that frightens you. Dress up as this animal and stand in front of a mirror. Have a conversation with this animal about your hopes and fears.
10. Go to a forest. Learn to identify 12 plant and tree species by touch.
11. Remove all electronic media from you home. Open a window and listen to the ambient sounds of Nature instead of the nightly news.
12. Follow piece.
    Follow the next ant you see to its nest. Sit down and wait until your particular ant exits its nest.
13. Animal Empathy
    Prepare chicken for your next meal. Take a bite and imagine the life of the chicken. Continue chewing until you have imagined the places where it was born, lived, and died. Swallow.