SEX BIRTH & DEATH 2003
Sex, birth & death
National Review of Live Art in the UK,
15th February 2003
Collective:Unconscious New York
24, 25th October 2003
Cleveland Performance Art Festival
Cleveland Public Theatre, USA
11th June 2003
Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria 2004
Cork Arts Club, Ireland 2004
Special Thanks to
Curators Nikki Millican (NRLA), Thomas Mulready (Cleveland)
Kunstraum Dornbirn & CAC
Nigel Rolfe forhis invaluable assistance & advice
A performance work in two parts.
Part one is a ritualistic communion (reminiscent of the Catholic Mass) and consumption of a beautifully made cake with fondant icing in the shape of a human foetus. I deliver a spoken monologue, a series of poem-like texts dealing with the subjective experience of maternal loss, erotic love and an enduring condition of desire. I stand before a small table upon which is placed a 'baby cake'. It is a rich fruit cake, iced with almond paste and fondant icing in the shape of a feotus. All the ingredients are organic...and it is delicious!
A slow-motion video is projected onto a wide screen behind me. The video work corresponds in imagery to the live action with the cake, hands caressing the cake, cutting it and finally eating it. A sound track is played over a sound system. This incorporates a soft, unsettling tonal drone with an irregular heart beat and a spoken voice fading in and out. As a final gesture, I offer slices of the cake to the audience and I also eat it myself.
Part two is a declaration of love and loss, illustrated by the issuing forth of milk streams from my breasts. I deliver an incantation, seductive and intimate. Standing before the audience, rigged up to medical latex tubes through my dress, I pick up two squeezy bottles of milk and propel the liquid through the tubes to pour out at the nipples. Two streams of milk flow down my dress. Behind me a wide screen plays video footage elaborating on this image, using the naked breast and jets of milk. The sound track continues to play. The piece ends with this image of maternalism and eroticism combined.
Script fragment:
bear witness to a declaration of love & loss…
someone will die
someone will be born
forget the life of stones and return home
forget now the taste of blood in the womb consumed & fall into the sea of love
love the red disease
love the affliction that has no remedy…
sex, birth & death is a work expressing the subjective womanly experience of maternalism and eroticism. Issues such as birth and abortion are explored alongside sexual desire and the complexity of our gendered identity. The piece is highly charged emotionally and the images are ecstatic metaphors for spiritual transformation and fecundity. The work is darkly humorous and unsettlingly beautiful in equal measure. Lois Keidan, co-curator of NRLA and Director of the Live Art Development agency in London writes (2003)
"Aine is making some of the most mature, intelligent and accomplished work imaginable dealing with complex and important issues such as motherhood, gender, belief and responsibility. Few other artists have her depth or her rigour or are able to address such complex ideas in simple and highly accessable ways."
National Review of Live Art in the UK,
15th February 2003
Collective:Unconscious New York
24, 25th October 2003
Cleveland Performance Art Festival
Cleveland Public Theatre, USA
11th June 2003
Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria 2004
Cork Arts Club, Ireland 2004
Special Thanks to
Curators Nikki Millican (NRLA), Thomas Mulready (Cleveland)
Kunstraum Dornbirn & CAC
Nigel Rolfe forhis invaluable assistance & advice
A performance work in two parts.
Part one is a ritualistic communion (reminiscent of the Catholic Mass) and consumption of a beautifully made cake with fondant icing in the shape of a human foetus. I deliver a spoken monologue, a series of poem-like texts dealing with the subjective experience of maternal loss, erotic love and an enduring condition of desire. I stand before a small table upon which is placed a 'baby cake'. It is a rich fruit cake, iced with almond paste and fondant icing in the shape of a feotus. All the ingredients are organic...and it is delicious!
A slow-motion video is projected onto a wide screen behind me. The video work corresponds in imagery to the live action with the cake, hands caressing the cake, cutting it and finally eating it. A sound track is played over a sound system. This incorporates a soft, unsettling tonal drone with an irregular heart beat and a spoken voice fading in and out. As a final gesture, I offer slices of the cake to the audience and I also eat it myself.
Part two is a declaration of love and loss, illustrated by the issuing forth of milk streams from my breasts. I deliver an incantation, seductive and intimate. Standing before the audience, rigged up to medical latex tubes through my dress, I pick up two squeezy bottles of milk and propel the liquid through the tubes to pour out at the nipples. Two streams of milk flow down my dress. Behind me a wide screen plays video footage elaborating on this image, using the naked breast and jets of milk. The sound track continues to play. The piece ends with this image of maternalism and eroticism combined.
Script fragment:
bear witness to a declaration of love & loss…
someone will die
someone will be born
forget the life of stones and return home
forget now the taste of blood in the womb consumed & fall into the sea of love
love the red disease
love the affliction that has no remedy…
sex, birth & death is a work expressing the subjective womanly experience of maternalism and eroticism. Issues such as birth and abortion are explored alongside sexual desire and the complexity of our gendered identity. The piece is highly charged emotionally and the images are ecstatic metaphors for spiritual transformation and fecundity. The work is darkly humorous and unsettlingly beautiful in equal measure. Lois Keidan, co-curator of NRLA and Director of the Live Art Development agency in London writes (2003)
"Aine is making some of the most mature, intelligent and accomplished work imaginable dealing with complex and important issues such as motherhood, gender, belief and responsibility. Few other artists have her depth or her rigour or are able to address such complex ideas in simple and highly accessable ways."
