Rumples is a new performance video by Dirty Churches, filmed at Songs for Presidents on Sepember 12, 2020, featuring Alexandra Jacob and Rachel Blackwell, music by Jesse Gelaznik. Dirty Churches was scheduled to perform at Songs For Presidents on March 19th 2020. That didn’t happen. Starting on Friday March 13th life changed for New Yorkers and a lot of other people around the world. This piece was birthed of the crushing anxiety that controlled our thoughts and actions for months and continues to do so. Alienation, fear of contagion, and the decline and death of the body haunt Rumples. The imagery and horror film soundtrack is a reflection of the dark thoughts that Dirty Churches has felt during this time of COVID. This video is also a sign of the times for performance art in general, what is it if it’s not live? The future of Songs for Presidents is uncertain, and the piece may be an elegy for a certain basement in Bushwick with a contemporary art history from the late Genesis P’Orridge to Famous Accountants. With Rumples, Dirty Churches has blended performance documentation with installation and video art to create a vivid nightmare of searching shadows, twisting figures and looming masked creatures.