Art MFA Nik Rye’s Performance and Show Brings Awareness to Homelessness

FSU Art MFA ’23 Nik Rye brings attention to homelessness and the aftereffects of incarceration in Tallahassee through a week-long performance, February 8-15, 2021, at The Plant, a local non-profit creative space. The piece, titled Seven Days a Diamond, symbolizes the seven days she spent in jail for being homeless and sleeping outside. Locking herself into a “box” behind a storefront window, she painted the walls with the diary entries following her experience in jail. With only 7 bottles of water, 4 rolls of toilet paper, hygiene wipes, and hand sanitizer, she is dependent on others’ food donations. She hopes the performance will garner more visibility to the more than 100 homeless in the Tallahassee area. The story was broadcast on several news outlets including The Tallahassee Democrat, ABC 27 WTXL, and WCTV.

The performance will be followed by a show titled Seven Days a Diamond: Archive Show, also at The Plant, opening Friday, March 26, 2021 at 7 pm with an artist presentation.

There’s this criminalization of homelessness that happens everywhere in the United States, and in other countries too, where we just treat them like they’re not people.

Nik Rye is a multimedia performance artist whose work addresses themes of traumatic growth, communal ethical dilemmas, and current & future dystopia under capitalism. She is currently living in Tallahassee, Florida. She earned an AS in Graphic Design at Broward College, a BA in Studio Art at Florida State University, and is a current Studio Art MFA candidate at Florida State University.