(I unfortunately managed to capture not the actual performance, but only some of the comments after it, with the camera looking down at my shoes :()

Sigal laid out multiple flags on the floor pieces of paper on the floor, all containing images of the Israeli and American flags. She then held up one of the American paper-flags to the audience with a contemplative look on her face… and then the paper flipped to show an Israeli flag on the other side. And then it flipped back to the American side. Then Israeli. Faster and faster. American. Israeli. American. Israeli. Sigal looked confused throughout all of this flipping, as if asking to herself, “Which side am I? Which flag am I loyal to? American? Or Israeli?”

Finally, she picked up another flag from the floor. This one had half of an American flag on it, with the other half Israeli; a custom kind of flag, just for Sigal. After showing this half-and-half flag to the audience, Sigal finally smiled.

Sigal’s self-portrait reflected on the issue of self-identity, a theme common amongst everyone’s self-portraits. A number of us were not born in the United States, and nearly everyone has some heritage in another corner of the world. Though the performance was short, its theme enabled the audience to connect with Sigal, as most of us have surely gone through a similar conflict: trying to figure who exactly it is that we are.

Though Sigal could have used a table for her props, her choice to sit on the floor worked well for this particular piece. Sigal was able to lay out multiple flags on the floor — all parts of her identity — for us, the audience, to see. And because she was on the floor, many in the audience had to shift forward in their seats to see everything that happening. This created a much more inviting performance than if Sigal were sitting and looking at the audience at eye-level.

That said, I did have some trouble enjoying the performance as much as everyone else did because I was trying to film it from above my head (never mind the fact that I apparently had not even pressed record at the time…). I had to make sure that the performance was actually in the shot, which required me to look up at the video camera — while everyone else was looking down at the actual performance. It’s certainly a little harder to enjoy someone’s performance when you’re viewing it behind a piece of glass instead of live, but I enjoyed what I saw nonetheless.