Belonging to the ongoing series Essays in Vibrational Poetics, this performance takes as its point of departure a 1986 essay by Aotearoa-born art critic Lita Barrie.

In her text, titled Further Toward: A Deconstruction of Phallic Univocality: Deferrals, Barrie draws upon writers including Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray to stage a critique of a group of New Zealand women artists whose work Barrie considered one-dimensional visual slogans, lacking nuance or depth. Published in the context of passionate debates around feminist politics and practice in Aotearoa, Barrie’s polemic caused controversy upon its initial release. 

D’Evie and Hancock selected quotes from Barrie’s text, which have been translated into a series of movements performed by Hanock, gestures and articulations the artists call an embodied typography. In doing so, the artists gently critique Barrie’s position, and rethink how we might engage with publishing through the body and the voice.

The first quote is the essay’s title; the second is Barrie’s own quotation of Simone de Beauvoir’s statement, “one is not born a woman, but rather becomes a woman;” the third is “What is woman?... a DISRUPTIVE EXCESS is possible on the feminine side.”

In each instance, the artists pay attention to the contexts, poetics and typographic treatment of language, as well as incorporating graphic elements from the text into Hancock’s costume—a pattern from the title page of the essay finds itself repeated on Hancock’s dress. In doing so, they consider how gendered expression, much like written communication, involves patterns of repetition, citation and translation, and how the meanings of both writing and gender changes over time.

- Excerpted from introduction to the work by Govett Brewster curator Simon Gennard

{~~~~} ... , ... , … ; x // Further Toward, Further Toward, A Deconstruction of Phallic Univocality (2022)
Choreographic performance
Costume by Tristan Seebohm
Wig styling by Erika Flash
Nails by Lili Taylor

{~~~~} ... , ... , … ; x // Further Toward, Further Toward, A Deconstruction of Phallic Univocality // typographic notes (2022)
Video (26.40 min)
Edited documentation of performance, 19 October 2022, Govett Brewster
Videography by Ted Whitaker
Colour grading by Ted Whitaker and Jacob Edmonds

Public Relations: A Performance Series, Govett Brewster, Ngāmotu New Plymouth, Aotearoa NZ, 20 Aug - 13 Nov 2022

Performance: 19 October 2022