Category: queer

if you cut out your eyes with scissors
do you think you would still dream?
…the politics of being seen
naked
i am lying in wait
i am laying out the bait
…Salome would just chop of Herod’s dick to add to her holy head collection

Headless Women is an in-process performance research project that began at the Arts Village Rotorua Open Studios Project during Summer 2019/20 and will tour Aotearoa in 2023.

A development workshop was held at Impact Dance Studio in Ōtautahi, Summer 2021 with Chloe Summerhayes, Georgia Giesen, Denesa Chan, Hannah Blumhardt, Natalie Carroll, and Jess Quaid.

Writing that came from the residency here

Response to the workshop showing by Dr Erin Harrington here

Short film from the 2021 workshop by Natalie Kittow here

Music composed by Madison van Staden of Moody V and the Menstrual Cycle

Images taken by Natalie Kittow, Fern King, and Natalie Carroll

Scruffy or Dapper?

Big Spoon or Little Spoon?

Who would you turn straight for?

Have you found your virginity  yet?

Watch Hot Girl On Girl Action dissected reassembled and resurrected by Two Hot Femmes!

In Feminine Hygiene, Two Babes Virginia (The Lady Garden) and Marika (A Symphony of Sloths) go beyond the unicorn to smash the male gaze and find what it means to be Hot Queer Femmes!

Taking the form of a performance art essay, Feminine Hygiene is a new collaboration between performance artists Marika Pratley (Wellington) and Virginia Kennard (Christchurch), exploring concepts behind cisgender woman femme queer identity, and the tensions between having autonomy over conventional feminine/femme identity/behaviours under capitalist-patriarchal social relations.

Created in collaboration with composer,
sonic artist, and sloth appreciator
Marika Pratley/Class War on the Dance Floor/Babe of Babylon

Marika is an award winning multidisciplinary composer, improviser and performance artist from Wellington, New Zealand. Marika is currently producing her first documentary, The Healing Power of The Sloth, which investigates the role that her own music composition practice has had within her own journey of trauma recovery.

This work has been made possible through funding from Creative New Zealand Creative Communities scheme via Christchurch City Council and Creative Waikato,
Dunedin Fringe Trust Fringe Artist grant, and the University of Otago
Division of Humanities Performing Arts fund

World premiere, Hamilton Fringe
7.15pm, Wednesday 30th – Thursday 31th October 2019
The Meteor, Hamilton, NZ

Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival
8pm, Saturday 30th November 2019
Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA), Christchurch, NZ

Dunedin Fringe
7.30pm, Wednesday 25th – Saturday 28th March 2020
Dog with Two Tails, Dunedin, NZ

“The stage is set like a messy girl’s bedroom…from the onset it is mind-blowing…It’s refreshing and lovely…Bravo to this dynamic duo, who are in their way arguing, explaining or examining cis/hetero-normativity, queerness, femme power, familial congeniality and power in dark corners…Kennard and Prately very charmingly empower minority” – Jan-Maree Franicevic, Theatreview

“This narrative is my jam and I’m having to work hard at challenging myself wrt naked bodies in art, use of “menstrual fluid” for body paint…Thank you Marika and Virginia. That was awesome. Wish I had the chance to really absorb more. So many great ideas breaking down taboos between femme bodies and academic theory” – AJ Fitzwater, Twitter

“Upon completion of this festival I muse I have become more at ease with these nipples, genitals, curves, bumps, hues, hair and muscles…Virginia and Marika later talk about sex positivity as an antidote to rape culture.” – Emily Mowbray-Marks, Theatreview

How do you construct a sexuality?
Maybe at IKEA 😉

Images taken by Petra Mingneau for Movement Art Practice

We are not interested in your cis-heteronormative, patriarchal, mono-amorous, state-sanctioned, government-regulated, court-conferred notions of forever love.

We are interested in lasagne love, dogging in car parks, lesbian banter, vegan whipped cream, child-bearing hips, and our own kind of queer wedded bliss.

Blood, blood, blood ran down her legs
And i just couldn’t be more happy for her

BIG QUEER ANTI-WEDDING
Devised, designed, written, composed, installed, constructed,
performed, created and choreographed by
Alexis Lilly Denman, Alice Boulton-Breeze, Amy Mauvan, Chlöe Hall, Cieran Reed, Florence Simms, Jessica Mae Ivison, Kate Stonestreet, Nicole Murmann, and Virginia Kennard
Tech’d, managed, baked and dressed by
Jaye Kearney, Jazmine Webb, Adam Sas-Skowronski,
and Abby Morley
Featuring an original soundscore by
Marika Pratley and Chris Wratt (New Zealand

MA Performance, Artist Project Major module
Leeds Beckett University
12noon, Wednesday 6th September 2017
Leeds Music Hub, Leeds, UK

MY  MATRIMONIAL BODY BELONGS TO ME
Performed by Virginia Kennard and Amy Mauvan
WOMAN SRSLY, curated by Grace Nicol Dance
7.30pm, Friday 27th October 2017
The CentrE17, London, UK

Performed by Virginia Kennard, Alice Boulton-Breeze, Florence Simms, and Cieran Reed
Queering Ritual, organised by School of the Art Institute of Chicago and York St John University
Saturday 4th November 2017
York St John, York, UK

WHAT’S YOUR BRIDE PRICE
Performed by Virginia Kennard
S.A.M.P.L.E. curated by Alana Yee
8.30pm, Wednesday 19th July 2017
Paper Dress Vintage, London, UK

Performed by Virginia Kennard
Mother’s Bloomers, curated by Mother’s Ruin
7.30pm, Thursday 16th November 2017
ARC: Stockton, County Durham, UK

THE BLOODY BRIDE
Performed by Virginia Kennard
Tease, directed by Jeremy Haxton/Lost Cow Performances
Friday 21st November 2014
In Good Company, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

Widening the Cycle exhibition
Curated by Jen Lewis/Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
4-6 June 2015
Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Photography by Filippo Gasparini

Performed by Virginia Kennard, Marika Pratley, and Chris Wratt
you occupy my body by looking
Saturday 20th June 2015
Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

#notyourgoodqueer
#RedShoesNoKnickers
#yearoftheho2017
#againstequality

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Photography credits

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© Copyright Virginia Kennard 2016