I am a fan of Oriana Fox (for a visual image of her - think a slimmer, prettier version of Mel from Flight of the Conchords). I went to the best night out ever last night. Not only were we on the massive windowed seventh floor of the Tate Modern overlooking everything in London but there was wine, wine, food, more wine, nude (fit) men, nude (fit) women, food painting, rapping, huge fabric pussies and people tied up with pieces of string - all in all a perfect night out. So much wine was flowing that the joyful sound of the odd broken glass dropped into the performance towards the end of the evening as the audience happily slipped into oblivion.The night was all about re-enacting famous feminist art performances (and protests) - a "hommage" to the much slagged off 60s/70s/80s wimmin who watched themselves being watched by men and tried to climb out of the frame. But Oriana also added her own knowing wink and little comedy twists. One of the best features was a performance which re-enacted Judy Chicago's "Cock and Cunt Play" (1970)using a huge fabric pussy but incorporating 2 new characters - including a very eloquent talking cervix (the "eye"). Oriana's original 2003 Goldsmiths work "Our bodies, Ourselves" linked 70s feminism and the ever popular "Sex in the city", pointing out that the "SITC" girls are staging their own little feminist protest, just under a different guise .
My other favourite item was Oreet Ashery's "Hairoism" performance. A reworking of Eleanor Antin's 1972 video The King in which the artist slowly adds facial hair and clothes to make herself a slightly underconfident monarch. Oreet had all her hair shaved off, then reglued it to make herself look like both the head of the Israeli Defence Forces, then a leader of Hamas, then the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Yasser Arafat - successively. All simply through different haircuts and a bit of glasses wearing (and she did surprisingly look very similar to them). Then she had hair glued all over her body-scary.The night ended with a full on rap whilst three young men stood nude, covering themselves in polka dots, (a part piss take of the Heyward Gallery's current red and white polka dotted trees / installations by Yayoi Kusama just upriver?). Lilibeth, the artise, proceeded to do Shigeko Kubota-style vagina painting, dragged her hair up and down the floor also adding to the painting in a Pollock-stylee whilst rapping angrily about "vagina painting with a penis brush" and
over-recycling of the past.Everyone should see this stuff - it is awesome.
Photograpy: Hitomi Yoda.
