Flowers Will Die was a live performance at the Bronx Museum in which seven women collectively labored to create their combined body weight—890 pounds—of bread dough. Over several hours, they mixed, kneaded, and shaped the material by hand, transforming a domestic task into an act of endurance and solidarity. The performance foregrounded the physicality of women’s labor, connecting nourishment, creation, and decay. As the dough accumulated, it became both a measure of collective strength and a reminder of impermanence—like flowers, it would eventually collapse, dry, or rot. The work explored cycles of production and loss, questioning how women’s bodies and efforts are consumed, celebrated, or forgotten. Through repetitive gestures, Flowers Will Die became a living metaphor for care, exhaustion, and resilience—an embodied archive of shared work that confronts the passage of time and the inevitability of transformation.

Performers: Carla Abraão, Kexun Zhang, ,Leah Heath, Clarimar Capellan, Rafaela Luna, and Lola Lefrancois