Fighting
Cocks is the
investigation and reenactment of the dynamics of violence, play and masculinity
in a site that typically offers no space for other than a normative expression
of gender and an over accentuation of behaviors that are a result of that.
Two bodies, both performing queer masculinities, meet in a locker room and play out the ritual of snapping towels. When a towel is snapped there is pain inflicted and a mark left on another’s flesh whom, on their behalf, has to prove that they can take it. It is a double play of dominance and endurance.
Continuing this beyond a realistic degree this conventional confirmation of masculinity and means of bullying is gradually deconstructed and new meanings are constructed based on the queering of the locker room as a symbolic site. The performance is a humanizing mimicry of a cockfight where the birds are conditioned for strength, stamina and trauma.
For "Committment Issues" all the artists were asked to provide their definition of "committment" in relationship to their performance. Here are my thoughts:
1.
Full engagement mentally and physically in a praxis of
investigation that is felt to be personally and socially
urgent.
2.
The introduction of the potential for a “sincere”
experience for both the artist and viewer.
3.
The insertion of queer questioning regarding power,
privilege, categorization and normalization.
a: Example:
No exact results found for “queer
masculinity”.
Did you mean:
Fighting Cocks is live performance that was
created specifically for Commitment
Issues, a night of performances curated by artist Jess Dobkins for the FADO
Performance Art Network in Toronto Canada in November 2011
Oasis Aqualounge, ‘Toronto's preeminent swinger's club’ would
be used as the site of the performances.
On Oasis’s website it is stated that going there is “a great opportunity
for ladies to wear slinky dresses, their favorite lingerie, tiny bikinis”. They have rooms themed like dungeons or the
back of 70’s vans and of course they had locker rooms for changing, and this is
where I found the location for my performance.
Considering the theme of commitment I
drew on my own and other’s experiences and expectations of the locker room as a
site of both mental and physical trials, and that resulted in a 3 hour towel fight
between another person and myself. What
became interesting through this process was to focus on aspects of play,
violence and queer/queering masculinity.
I wanted to push beyond the normative ‘masculine’ act of snapping towels
by inserting two bodies into the space that queered masculinity itself.
I needed to find a person who would
be my partner in this performance. The idea of working with an ‘unknown’
partner was exciting but it was a risk to trust the commitment that this person
could give to me and to the piece. I typically do not involve others in my
performances for practical and conceptual purposes however his time working
with another person was crucial.
This is where Eli D Campanaro comes
in. Eli was on a list of potential
performance partners that I gathered from contacts in Toronto and when I saw a
picture of Eli I knew that was who I wanted to undertake the performance with
me. Eli was standing on top of an old
tractor wearing a sleeveless white t-shirt, rolled up shorts, brown boots and a
cap. Eli recently wrote on Facebook: “…I'm so
tired of the bullshit binary boxes that others seem determined to slot me into.
Fuck the binary. So what if I have a beard and tits?!? So the fuck what?!?!” This way of
thinking can help frame why, after talking with Eli, I understood that both Eli
and I represented, each in our own way, how queer masculinities have the
potential to take shape.
The performance was an extremely
physical and emotional affair. Eli and I
alternated between taking turns and simultaneously snapping each other with wet
towels that we pulled out from the lockers and then threw onto the floor in a
pile. We quickly became extremely bruised,
exhausted and exhilarated while hearing opposing shouts from people that moved in
and out of the locker room: shouts of support to “hit that guy harder” and admonishments
of “stop, you can’t go on”.
I grew wary of continuing for my
sake but more pressing was an anxiety I felt for Eli as I did not think either
of us was aware of how brutal this performance could become. Our bodies were obviously suffering.
While there were no moments of rest
during the performance there were times when the action slowed down. It was
then that I could reflect on the fact that we had set up a ‘safe word’ system
that could ultimately stop this performance. As the towel snapping continued I considered
that fact that neither Eli or I had not used these words and came to the
conclusion we had to trust each other to know our own bodies and minds.
This
mimicry of a cockfight where birds are conditioned for strength, stamina and
trauma ended after three hours as Eli and I gingerly put back on our jeans and
shirts and left the locker room.