Present Absence was a work based on the performer/creator’s absence from the performance environment.  Performance Art has a long and sordid past with the issues of the "body"--an often-uninterrogated site of use and misuse to create "effects" or shock. In the field of Performance Art there is almost nothing that has not been done with bodies and to bodies. This, I believe, has caused a numbness, a stagnation. Present Absence is a piece that works in opposition to the presence of a body or a "somebody". I strove to make the absence of a body as tangible as its presence. Present Absence asked the question: can a solo performance piece be as compelling when the solo performer is not actually physically present? And, if yes, how? This piece referenced film (Opening Night, The Way Things Go, BOOM!, Warhol’s Beauty #2 and More Milk Yvette, Xanadu), the sculptures of Rube Goldberg, the relationship between life, death and fame (or more importantly, loss of fame) as enacted in Broadway shows like Minelli on Minelli, Crave and fashion runway presentations. As a continuation of my larger ongoing project, this new work explored the possibility of bridging the gap between the categories Performance Art and Visual Art.  Present Absence blurred the distinction between art object and live art; the difference between animal and animation.