STUNTMAN
live performance
live performance [3 hours]
kickstart triumph motorbike, wooden ramp
photographs by ]performance s p a c e [
Exploring the queer erotics of compressed time and impending mortality, I straddle a motorbike as it faces a dead-end ramp. Without turning the key in the ignition, the narrative is clear; if I drive, I crash.
The flickering headlight remains the sole source of light as I thrust my clenched crotch down on the saddle; my phallus. With one embodied stomp, I kickstart the engine and throttle the engine until it suddenly cuts. The space is now filled with a deeper understanding of the motorbikes’ masculine undertones; the sweet purr; the rattling roar; the engine cuts; the spectre remains. Fatal fumes refuse to disperse as sight becomes hazed and bodies form a homogenous whole.
Now I’m left to ask, why did I want to emulate this and for who? But then I think of the words of Del LaGrace Volcano and I feel some form of clarity, even if only fleetingly:
The flickering headlight remains the sole source of light as I thrust my clenched crotch down on the saddle; my phallus. With one embodied stomp, I kickstart the engine and throttle the engine until it suddenly cuts. The space is now filled with a deeper understanding of the motorbikes’ masculine undertones; the sweet purr; the rattling roar; the engine cuts; the spectre remains. Fatal fumes refuse to disperse as sight becomes hazed and bodies form a homogenous whole.
Now I’m left to ask, why did I want to emulate this and for who? But then I think of the words of Del LaGrace Volcano and I feel some form of clarity, even if only fleetingly:
The feeling of comfort and relief I experienced when being perceived as male came as quite a shock to me because I was raised to believe in the power and glory of womanhood. There are some who accuse me of betraying “womanity” by inhabiting what looks and sounds like a male body. BOLLOCKS to that I say! I’m a Gender Terrorist, a walking, talking bomb in The Boys Club. Tick Tock. Tick Tock. 1
1Volcano, D.L. and Halberstam, J. (1999) The Drag King Book. London: Serpent’s Tail.
STUNTMAN was a three-hour live performance cultivated as a result of an artist-in-residence with Steakhouse Live in ]performance s p a c e [, Folkestone. The final live action was realised at Tonybee Studios, Arts Admin in London for Steakhouse Live's live art event Slow Sunday in March 2020.