A Tyranny of Small Decisions (Installation, 2025)

A Tyranny of Small Decisions is a phenomenon that occurs as a result of the small, yet compounding choices we make. Not speaking up, going along with things, maintaining a silence too long, putting up with something uncomfortable... Over time, these little decisions can lead us into an entanglement that we didn’t anticipate or desire.

The installation is made up of 2.4m tall, thorned stems of increasing density. Forming a path, the outer stems are lightly thorned and far away from each other. As the installation grows, the stems become increasingly closer together, making navigation through them near impossible. As an accompaniment to the performances ‘To Work at Wreckage’ (2025) and ‘Patience and Penitentia’ (2026), the performer must navigate every step with a new choice, response or decision, each leading further into the thicket, getting stuck, pulled, or slowed down. The thorns grab at clothes, tearing them and making it harder to move. What starts as a small challenge becomes a tangled journey of endurance. It shows how small things can slowly trap us, and how we must sacrifice parts of ourselves to resurface.

Installation photos:

Bardo Projekt Raum, September 2025

Courtesy of Ida Sophia