Exhaustion

12 Mattresses 

Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

2025

Exhaustion was an impromptu performance action created during my stay at a hostel in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, as part of the Between Cloud and Rain International Behavioral Art Festival. It grew out of my physical and mental state after a long, tedious, exhausted overnight bus journey from New Delhi to the foothills of the Himalayas on Christmas Eve. In the hostel outdoor communal space, I lay down on a single mattress, while a friend placed the mattresses on top of me, one by one. Using my immediate exhaustion and the materials available at that moment, I wanted to embody a contradiction: rest, usually understood as relief, can also become a strain and a burden. The mattresses—objects associated with sleep and comfort—became weights pressing down on my resting body. Through this simple action, I sought to make my exhaustion visible not by explaining it, but by letting my body bear it.