In March of 2014, Caitlin Scott was hit by a car while driving her scooter home from work. Her femur was broken in two places and the flesh around her knee was ripped open and out. One minute she was on her bike thinking “this car is about to hit me” and the next she was sitting in the street, alone. When she tried to stand her leg was limp and incapable, nearly severed from her body. She looked at her knee and started to scream for her life. It was maybe a minute or two before someone came over to help but, for a moment, she was alone, bleeding and helpless in the street.
For the performance eFEMURal, she created a cast of her leg and destroying it while reciting the screams of desperation that define that helpless moment. eFEMURal is about fear, loss, physical disability and pain but it’s also about purging the artist of that trauma by embracing that moment and taking control of it through performance. The piece is about destroying the idea of her “perfect” leg and embracing the new truth of her body.
The piece was performed for the (Wo)manorial show “Inside)(Outside” at Oil&Cotton in Dallas, Texas, 5 months after the accident on August 16th.
COPYRIGHT 2014