Following IN//Footsteps OF

With societal prescriptive expectations of who we should be and how we should act, cognitive dissonance is seemingly inevitable. The failure to meet expectations of the other are unavoidable. The trauma of failure creates a space for transformation. In these moments of trauma, both through ruptured bodily experience and the notion of the nuclear family as a catalyst for madness, a new aspect of the self surfaces and becomes known. Just as a split in the surface of the body becomes filled with blood and flesh, so does the split in our sense of self become filled with an element from deep within. Following IN//Footsteps OF is an attempt to reclaim space and time through acts of precarious tenderness, in an extended moment of rupture. Symbolic objects become conduits for connection with a disrupted experience of domesticity. Threads that pass through the surface of the skin allow for the body to extend beyond here and now. This installACTION questions the role of the female and all that encompasses; roles of mother, sister, daughter are societal constructs with given rules and expectations of both behaviour and fertile purpose. Following IN//Footsteps OF aims to expose the weight of these expectations, whilst also dismantling them. Through destruction comes creation, and so this space will allow for a reconsideration through actions of resistance. MY BODY IS NOT CURRENCY, NOR IS IT AN OBJECT TO BE OWNED OR PASSED FROM MAN TO MAN. MY BODY IS FLUID, AND WILD, AND ONE WITH THE TIDES OF THE MOON. Materials: 90 Eggs, 6 x Menstrual Fluid / Resin Objects, Laid Dining Table for 6, 6 x Sutures, 1 Pair of Shoes Sutured to heels, Tailors Scissors, 1 Milk Bottled Filled With Milk Suspended From Vagina. 2 Hour Duration. Performed at Tempting Failure Festival of International Performance Art and Noise 2018, London. Supported by Arts Council of Wales. Photo Credit: Julia Bauer.