Maraschino cherries, acrylic yarn, maraschino cherry filled incense diffuser (not visible)
8:27 minutes long
Uncomfortably perched atop a small white couch and on display for my peers, I force feed myself maraschino cherries and work on knitting a baby blanket. As I consume the cherries -- their artificial sweetness sickening to me, their size that of the fetus I aborted -- my gagging increases, and the task at hand becomes more difficult. The vibrant red stains my white surroundings, and the juices begin to glue yarn to needle. By the eighth minute, I am no longer able to pry the stitches off of the needle and my nausea is unbearable.
For the last month of my 2-month long pregnancy, I was tormented by unrelenting nausea which was intensified by the presence of artificially sweet smells. During this performance I had an incense diffuser full of maraschino cherry juice in the room. The audience stood watching, unable to relieve me of my self-inflicted suffering, as the audio of my gags dragged on. At the end, some individuals admitted to feeling sick themselves, either from the strong scent in the room, or from sympathetic distress.