Unravel is a performance piece made in collaboration between Arjuna Durrant and Krystal Fortune and documented by Monique Ross. 

The creation of Unravel began with a chance encounter between Durrant and Fortune at a small shop in Detroit. Since then, an open conversation has grown into a performance piece exploring themes of vulnerability, body image, and self-worth. 

To many, looking at our bodies with judgment has become an unconscious yet ingrained part of our everyday practice. Critique is often our automatic response to seeing our reflections; What should be thinner, longer, fuller, higher, smoother... What would change if a practice of self-love was as ingrained in our psyches? If we looked at our bodies with gratitude on a daily basis? If we saw and appreciated their strength, ability, and beauty as effortlessly as we see our perceived flaws?

Unravel invites the viewer to play witness to an intimate performance of self-love as Fortune audaciously puts herself on a pedestal and unravels all the doubt, shame, and judgment that she and society place upon her body. In the end, she stands unapologetically, proud, and beautiful, adorned in a leather harness, a garment often sexualized and seen as intended for the pleasure of an observer rather than its wearer. However, as Fortune stands posing, it is her own reflection that she is watching in a mirror.

Unravel is screened in a loop to emphasize the cyclical nature of Fortune’s practice: walking onto the pedestal, unraveling all the negativity, self-criticism, societal judgment, embracing and unapologetically adorning her body and admiring it, walking off and starting the whole thing over. Like many affirmation practices, you complete the ritual, and step out into the world only to be worn back down and start the ritual again.

Arjuna Durrant, Jytte Designs