Squash (1980)

Handling

A close up of the artist’s face, turned horizontal because she is lying on her side, is the focus of this simply shot piece. The title refers quite literally to what happens to the artist’s head. Her face is fairly neutral; it is hard to read anything into her expression. After a few moments in which she looks straight ahead then to the left and right with just her eyes, a hand appears from the top of the screen and pushes down. Quite deliberately another hand is laid on top of the first, followed by another. The pressure of the hands increases and squishes America’s features into a grotesque expression. Men’s and women’s hands both press down in a pile, one with a wedding ring, another with bright red nails. No emotional response from America or discernible gesture of aggression in the hands tells the audience that there is a specific emotion or story associated with this physical act.