Stories from the Body #6, #7- egress, emancipation

Carriageworks Nights, CONSENT

24 August 2023

This participatory performance re-devised for CONSENT, Carriageworks Nights, is compounded by imageries, memories and customs recounted by family members in Malaysia, and the Len Dong dance rituals witnessed in Hanoi:

“I wipe down the body of another with my hair, in the image memory of my grandmother who refused to speak during those 16 years she lived with us in Melaka. 2 days before she passed on she called each family member into her room - it was the first time she had spoken to me, her vocal chords hoarse, rusty from the lack of use...

I whip the participants after their bodies have been wiped down, with my hair.  Abstract vocalisations are invoked during this wiping down and whipping process. Each body is then covered with a piece of fabric, and left to resonate with the experience until the fabric is lifted off…”

Supporting Artists:

Alan Schacher and Martin Fox are my supporting artists acting as fabric bearer, remover and collector.  Sound artist Dahyo Lloyd,  samples my vocals, live, and sculpts them over time into layers that pulse, peak and unravel.

Many thanks to the participants who came forward to make the phenomenon of this work possible, including Renay Pepita, Lian Loke, Elly Brickhill, Yvette Hamilton, Carolyn Eccles, Maddy Briggs, Alison Clouston and Hirofumi Uchino.