A Mass of Red Hair Fell Down to Her Hips. Performance and installation for Borderlines: Cley 19 at St. Margaret’s Church, Cley next the Sea, 2019.
She appears in the churchyard wearing a garment and mask of red hair, she explores the area, touches history, fills her heels with the land. The relics left in the church are what came afterwards, after the monster visited the village. The draped, flowing hair and small objects exist somewhere between fact and fiction, a memory and a fairy tale. This piece explores the creation of a personal mythology, particularly how inspiration for these tales comes from the inherent fear and desire entangled within the landscape.
Mary, Mistaken Outcast. Performance in St. Mary’s Rest Garden for the UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham, 2019.
Mary, Mistaken Outcast is a performative encounter with a monster, a wild woman haunting the landscape. She is known as Mary, the wished-for-child, the sea of bitterness, and the rebellion. She is The Virgin, Magdalene, and my grandmother. Appearing on the grounds of St. Mary's church three times throughout the day, she responds to the landscape with her bodily presence in fleeting, yet calculated ways. Tracing the perimeter, laying with the land, chanting, and growling. Interacting with physical relics of the past through gesture and time, she will pose as a reminder of uncertainty for those who encounter her. Covered in long unruly hair, she is Mary transforming into the witch of the woods. Blurring the boundaries between religion, folklore, and archetypes in mythology, the performance expresses resistance to ideal femininity and seeks empowerment through the creation of her own mythology on her own terms.
In The Water. Performance for IKG Live 2, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary 2018.
This performance explored the ritual of baptism taken to an uncomfortable repetitious extent, where the head was submerged in a bowl of water for as long as possible. The overflow of water from each act of submergence led to the handmade dress being soaked through, and the bright red lingerie beneath becoming visible. These garments portrayed two binaries of female sexuality within religious terms, the virgin and the whore. The performance blurred this line, and through the use of ‘wetness’ to symbolize the grotesque feminine, expressed defiance to traditions that seek to hold power over the female body.
