Even though 24-year-old artist Sarah Bardwell is halfway around the world — she's teaching in Korea — you can hear her excitement over her politically charged art as if she were in the room with you.

Bardwell studied both English and cultural studies and critical theory while at McMaster, prior to traveling to Korea. It was what she learned in cultural studies that currently informs her art.

"I get really worked up about things, and I've always had a very natural gut reaction to instances of oppression, whether it's gender oppression, or oppression of sexual orientation or belief system," she said over Skype. "So when I went to school, and I started studying cultural studies, it was a way of explaining the feelings I was already having."

"Cultural studies has really allowed me to put those feelings into words and into an artistic dialogue ... because I just start swearing when I put them into words," she laughed.

Bardwell started in traditional art media like sculpture before she was introduced other forms in university. Her focus is now on performance art.

"I feel like it's a really natural place to go with my art, it allows me to incorporate two of my passions (theatre and art) into one. I really enjoy interacting with viewers, which you can't do in a static medium," she said.

She calls performance art "alive" and likes it because it's flexible. "Once you make something solid, you can't change it if your feelings on a certain topic change," she explained.

Her favourite performance pieces are entitled Touch and Hair. Touch evolved out of thinking about others' physical boundaries.

"From doing theatre ... I don't have a lot of physical boundaries like others do. I find it strange that some people don't like to be touched," she said.

The piece involves Bardwell in a black bodysuit with her hands in gloves, and she then invites the audience to touch her however they choose with white paint. The catch is that she will then touch them back in the same way.

"It's really about that mutual respect that needs to come with physical contact. I see it really affect people when I do it," she said. Hair is about Western culture's relationship to hair, specifically women's hair.

"I find it bizarre that women are encouraged to grow hair on their head but discouraged to grow hair on their body," she said.

Bardwell chooses not to shave the hair that grows on her body, which also serves as a part of this piece. During the performance, she dons a very feminine dress with feminine shoes and grows out the usually very short hair on her head. As she performs a monologue on the politics of hair, the pressure to maintain hair and how it's wrong that women feel ugly without it, she uses scissors to slowly cut off her hair, then uses an electric razor to shave her head.

"People have really visceral reactions to it, most males and females are like, 'Ahhh!' that I'm publicly shearing myself," she said.

Being in Korea has not afforded her many opportunities to do her highly political and statement- making pieces, given its conservative culture. However, she will not be returning this year without new ideas.

"I'm always thinking about pieces, it's a big way of communicating for me," she said. "Art has taught me that sometimes things you have difficulty expressing with words can be expressed more easily visually. It allows people to see your point of view instead of making them hear it."

Art also taught her to ask deeper questions.

"I think we live in a world that doesn't ask people to think about a lot of important things. It's easy to go about your day and do your Facebook and watch TV and not actually think about the world you live in ... If I make people think, then that is awesome," she said.

For more information on Sarah Bardwell, check out her on Facebook.