A psychic and psychological affliction begins. Thorny wounds slowly form and expand beneath the skin, while paranoia and pain set in. As the topography of the island, and its terrorising breakout, starts to change, their bodies transform with it. Soon, no one is recognisable and language ceases to function. Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the real terrorist amongst us all?
We are beginning our residency by reading and watching: ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ by H. G. Wells, ‘Ghost in the shell’, ‘Cowboy Bebop The Movie’ and ‘Blade Runner’.
We invite Castlemain to join us in the very early stages of making a new Science Fiction performance looking for the mother monster, the real transgender avatar, the terrorist…
This is the very beginnings of their new work for Next Wave Festival 2018.
About the Group
Embittered Swish is a performance art vehicle made up of artists: Romy Fox, Bobuq Sayed, Mick Klepner Roe, Mossy Pebbles, Krishna Istha and Cinnamon Templeton. They have worked with designers M’ck McKeague and Rare Candy. Their earlier work was focused on reformulating Jean Genet’s 1943 novel ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’ to speak to contemporary trans realities. The project focused on the morally and sexually ambiguous—Genet moves and speaks in the in-between; bodies overlap and change through desire; crimes and confessions are decaying glories. Embittered Swish is now turning away from Genet and towards other cultural texts, trans(formative) power dynamics and slippery mirrors. They have shown work at Performance Space- PACT (2016), Transgenre (2016), La Mama Courthouse (sell out season 2016), Archer magazine issue 7 launch (2016) and firstdraft gallery (2017).
About the Artists
Romy Seven Fox is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Sydney and now based in Melbourne. After flirting with a career in mainstream photography she cut her teeth studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design, majoring in Sculpture, Performance and Installation. Her work primarily deals with exploring identity and body, protective witchcraft and navigating queer spaces as a trans-woman. Her work is inherently queer, political and noisily critiques concepts like passing privilege and the pressure of body policing.
Mick Klepner Roe is a performance maker who completed their Masters of Directing for Performance at the VCA in 2016 with first class honours. They are interested in the in-between and disgusting. While at the VCA Mick investigated a trans-dramaturgy; a performance practice of remaining in transformation. Mick directed ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’ by Embittered Swish which premiered at La Mama Courthouse in October 2016 to a sold out season. Mick has worked as a performer, writer, facilitator, director and devisor with: Scratch and Sniff, The DIG Collective, lezbehonest, visual artist Alicia Frankovich, KAGE physical theatre and Union House Theatre among others.
