Nurturing The Unfertilised Egg: Towards the Absurd Heroine
Emily's performance art praxis considers a feminist reading of absurdist theory, demonstrated through nurturing acts towards an unfertilised egg. In practicing ongoing care towards her egg for the duration of this research project, Emily challenges a state-prescribed ‘meaning’ of her egg-making body based on biologically reproductive values.
Absurdism is traditionally communicated with cis-male examples, whereas this research argues that the experiences of women, trans and non-binary people are far more appropriate. Exploration of Emily's relationship with her egg culminates in repetitive manifestos, experimental speculative fictions, performance and rapid response making.
The research occurs at a critical point of re-evaluation of knowledges surrounding bodies in crisis. The current situation of protests and uprising amidst a Camusian pandemic highlights the absurd as a landscape in which bodies question the effects of capitalist expectation upon their state of being. It is in the sterility of labour that we observe tensions and give consideration to our counteractions. Reviving the disruption of meaning as a form of body-based activism claims utopian space for post-gender identities to be established through language and enactment rather than natural characteristics and their roles in (re)production.
‘A Tiny Square of Egg Shell’ - < > Connectedness: Interactions, Provocations, Collaborations. Birmingham City University. (July 10, 2020)
