Exertion is a video installation utilizing performance and gesture to signify the social and cultural pressures placed on female appearance. The sounds and movements in the videos are rooted in yogic Kriya exercises, methods for detoxifying and stabilizing the body, yet the movements in the videos are not visually reminiscent of yoga traditions. The actions in Exertion are borrowed to help create a dialogue about the archetypal Southern Californian woman, acknowledging an ambiguous space between cure and disease. This work explores the dichotomies between ideals of the female body and the male gaze, overt sexuality and objectification, and what is restorative and what is destructive. The sexual overtones that develop through abstraction of the Kriya movements provide a dialogue on the objectification of woman's bodies. Ultimately, Exertion creates an environment of raw, visceral, unrest.