Dark Water

Dark Water, 2020 performed by Lauryn Youden is an auto-theoretical text that examines the history of mourning, lamentation and death as central to the daily lives of European society during the rise of capitalist patriarchy and the plague; as well as the divination and ritualistic practices used by many to endure this period of time. Interwoven between passages are Youden’s personal experiences with ritualistic lamentation and intergenerational trauma expressed through poetry and healing found in Crip Magic practices.

Lauryn Youden is a performance and installation artist, poet and independent curator based in Berlin. Her practice derives from her research and navigation of modern Western medicine, the medical-industrial complex, ‘alternative’ healing practices and traditional medicine for the treatment of her chronic Illnesses and invisible disabilities.
By publicly presenting her personal experiences and re-evaluations of the history of medicine through a feminist, Crip queer lens, her work illuminates and advocates for repressed, marginalized and forgotten practices of care and knowledge.

Youden is currently in residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. She was the winner of the Berlin Art Prize in 2016, is a founder and co-director of Ashley Berlin and organizing member of Sickness Affinity Group (SAG)