The Only Good Woman is A Dead Woman - Recoding Death of Fantasy and Beauty

On Friday 13^th Jan, 2012 Nicola will perform two rituals for the empowerment of women - recoding death of fantasy and beauty. Features - projections, performance, install of red, yellow, blue hand and face sensor stickers, dangdut, hair whipping.
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“The Only Good Woman Is A Dead Woman” is a quote from Slavoj Zizek’s A Pervert’s Guide to Cinema he stipulates in cinema (a medium that now guides our fantasies) the death of the female (fantasy) keeps the male libidinal economy going onward and upward. I want to steal the power of death of fantasy from men and give it back to women. There are hands and face sillhouettes around the room where audience can place their hands or face, I ask them to confide in me, just by placing their thoughts into the ground or the glass – thoughts of a life or death of a fantasy. I do this by using projections and music. I will transform cinema into a sexy musical dominion where male and female fantasies live forever. Look at the footage, live the dangdut. In one of the shopfront windows I write all my ‘shut down’ lines on to dry rice paper over the projection. I project the aesthetic themes of Life, Death, Fantasy > Light, Dark, Fire and then take the dry rice paper circles, wet them stick them over my body. All of this aurally supported by a mix of Kylie Minogue's "Confide in Me" with Dangdut and Tecno Brega music. Re: Kylie, she took us the right way from hollywood (well Neighbours to being a sexy dancer, no fucker is gonna kill her now or make her move to Brisbane so Scott and the rest of the Neighbours can continue their shit!!!)

Then towards beauty and the water, that transformed the rice paper circles I add glitter, dip my hair in it and invite the audience to do the same as we  "Whip my hair back and forth." Men can’t kill a woman’s fantasies, they live on and are transferred.

I present the sexual fantasy of dangdut, a provocative dance slightly incongruous to the region's Islamic values, but one which is trance like, so never dies.. we get in a hair whipping trance..

According to The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille, (Western culture’s) cultural code for beauty is ‘men’s salvation’ – do we really work hard to impress each other with our beauty to prove our ability to save men? There is all this woman on woman anger, that extends to racial ie. white women v asian women – white women think men want asian women more and asian women think men want white women more. BUT LADY GAGA IS BEAUTIFUL AND DOESN’T SAVE MEN. In the pursuit of alien beauty, we find an alternative, feasting from the glitter I laid out earlier on in the night, everyone has glitter on our hands and faces and projected are the phrases “I only wear free trade and recycled clothing,”  “My make up is not tested on animals,” and "Aliens can overthrow the state" – we transform to beautiful caring aliens.
Video:


Window and Floor Install Plans:

Below are some video stills from projection and performance. Performance stills by KT Spit:

Dreamtime with Simbi Dare and Nicola Morton - AKSI REVOLUSI

Nicola Morton as The Rabbit
and
Simbi Dare as The Dragonfly

Escort you to Dreamtime in between the Banyan Trees, October 26 2011 at Alun Alun Kidul, Yogyakarta - the resting place of the gods and then sing...


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Problem: Revolution action is needed to change the fabric dimension of society to a place where we all hold empathy and have what we need - a dreamtime dimension. S&M's penultimate performance in Indonesia. Nicola and Simbi's medicine cards that represent our link to above and other dimensions are the Rabbit (fear) and the Dragonfly (illusion). This performance was to transform the fears and illusions we had presented in our previous performances and use the energy to expose the world to dreamtime. We used a famous public gateway in Yogyakarta, the banyan tree gates at the Sultan's Palace. According to tradition if you walk from the top of the park thru the middle of the gate you will have unlimited success. Every night locals and tourists try to get thru the cosmic gateway, often other musicians and people trick and distract you from getting through the gate. Dressed as the rabbit and dragonfly we tried to make our way through the 2 trees. On our 3rd attempt, we finally got to the middle and unpacked the gender (Javanese xylophone) and microphone and sang the lyrics of Atari Teenage Riot's "Revolution Action" which we had modified and translated to Bahasa Indonesian (a language not native to the area, but a simple, universalizing language of the area). At the end we wanted to destroy the rabbit and dragonfly as they draw fears toward us and get trapped in illusion. So the rabbit was eaten by a Javanese wooden tiger puppet and the dragonfly costume was going to be burned but at the last minute Simbi decided to give the costume to a little girl who had watched the whole performance in the audience. Having shed our fears and illusions, we get through the gate.  That night  Simbi met a new friend who has tattooed on his chest, "Be Careful What You Wish For." We drew new cards for our entrance to dreamtime, Nicola is the antelope or knowledgeable action and Simbi is the butterfly, or projects and transformation. For Christmas Simbi performed a potlatch, or Native American ceremony in which you give away and burn all your belongings.  An enormous sparkly dragonfly divebombed into the fire.

Saat hidup, Saat mati Saat hidup, Saat mati Saat hidup, Saat mati Saat hidup, Saat mati Saat hidup, AKSI REVOLUSI Kalian akan mati, untuk apa Kalian akan mati, untuk apa (AKSI) Kalian akan mati, untuk apa Kalian akan mati, untuk apa AKSI REVOLUSI Membakar kengarian pemerintah yang berkuasa Dengan pistol mengarah ke kepala Saya menyadari apa yang tidak saya dapatkan Banyak orang punya kekuatan tapi tidak satupun dari kita semua Setiap jam media katakan apa yang salah Berdiri di dalam tenggorakan singha dan saya mau tau hidup kalian menyebalikan di bendingkan dengan hidup saya dan teman2 saya Perusak ke tengah2 ikut hati mu AKSI REVOLUSI Kita akan mati, untuk apa? Kita akan mati, untuk apa? (AKSI) Ini bukan merusak diri sendiri Ini bukan merusak diri sendiri AKSI REVOLUSI

How I Survived a Kuntilanak Attack (Transforming Women on Women Rage)

Women are often oppressed in society by men and their fellow women and can’t express their feelings and anger. This oppression can give women a supernatural power which might lash out at just anyone without them even being consciously aware. Since revenge seems impossible in the physical world this causes powerful living spirits to emerge such as kuntilanak and sundel bolong (Indonesian female ghosts). However when this repressed violence becomes supernatural, kuntilanak tend to take it out on just about anybody, that’s why everyone is afraid of kuntilanak. This performance is about recognizing that from having this living spirit given to us thru oppression we can use it consciously rather than unconsciously to change society.

Simbi and Nicola have faced living spirits before and recognize the challenge of going further than being captivated by them. Derrida in Specters of Marx (1994) describes our struggle as follows: 

“One must have the ghost’s hide and to do that, one must have it. To have it, one must see it, situate it, identify it. One must possess it without letting oneself be possessed by it, without being possessed of it (…) Is not to possess a specter to be possessed by it, possessed period? To capture it, is that not to be captivated by it?” 

So first we taunt the audience and embody the specter by singing "Spellbound" by Siouxie and the Banshees and then "Girls" by the Beastie Boys (“I want.. girls to clean the bathroom”) on the gender, a traditional Javanese xylophone (the only one a woman can traditionally play). We also give out locally made clove cigarettes and newspapers. Simbi and I are women taking on women ghosts and so we sing "Boom I Got Your Boyfriend" to set the scene for this women on women anger. Then comes time for transformation as we offer up our bodies for violence from the crowd and recreate our sense of victimization (a là Marina Abramovic “Rhythm 0” (1974)). We absorb the oppression and then transform it into screams, anger and sadness, whilst at the same time documenting our screams and keeping the energy in the physical world. The idea is that women’s supernatural power is potentially a force for societal transformation if used consciously. We decide to support women making music together, We recommend riotgirl music (like Sleater Kinney) for everyone by giving out free mix CDS. We then sing "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" first remixed jungle style then again on the gender. We harnessed the supernatural power of repressed women to consciously change society.

Legally Lolita - A Performance about our Fathers

Problem: We are all affected by patriarchal power, the manipulations of our fathers- the lawmaker (my dad) and the self-made man (simbi's dad), mirror the way society tries to manipulate us through intimidation, isolation and flattery.

Part 1- Addresses how our father figures are liars and stealers who project their crimes onto us. We are dressed as schoolgirls and are caught stealing and sing a capella Jane's Addiction's 'Been Caught Stealing' accompanied by toy electric guitar. We are accompanied by projections of Rush Limbaugh, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, President Suharto.
Part 2 - Is about how discipline intimidates you and tricks you into wanting it and being sorry and instead you have to learn to speak up against it. Nicola sings Throbbing Gristle's 'Discipline' and builds a jail out of duct tape, while Simbi jams noise style over the top. Then Simbi dressed as a policeman gives orders to Nicola like a dog, like "Sit!," "Roll Over," "Get Back in Jail" and Nicola obeys. Then when in jail, Nicola apologises over and over again "Sorry, sorry" and then Simbi reveals she is just a schoolgirl and teaches Nicola to say "I'm not sorry" and "Why the fuck, should I be sorry."
Part 3 - By using the power of sharing a joint and becoming gothic lolita's we temporarily escape the discipline and jail of our fathers and play hand clap games and jump rope, but we get caught and tied up in the image of lolita's as Reese Witherspoon in Clueless and Legally Blonde and Athena, daughter of Zeus.
Part 4- We find better female role models as we transform to our Orisha's, Yemaya (Mother deity and ocean goddess) and Oya (Warrior spirit of the wind, lightning, fertility, fire and magic) and sing "Don't You Love Her Madly" by The Doors- as we successfully walk out the door of the Jail.
Part 5- As the Orisha's and characters from Vera Chytilová's 'Sedmikrásky' (Daisies) We learn how to answer manipulative phrases, ie. "I always wanted to be an intellectual and a lawyer, but you can do that. Well you didn't loser, I have a chance to be a great artist" and "I'll blame your mother and scream at her and hit her. She should leave you if you do that. I am not making you hit her" then Simbi sings Carole King's, 'Tapestry' and Nicola as Oya creates a tornado amongst the gravestones of books.

Mau ke Bulan - A Journey to the Dark Side of the Moon

A performance that investigates the dark (Lilith) side of the Moon and Mothers. Held at T-Art Space, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.

Comment By Simbi:
We all know mothers have their dark sides just like anyone and some of
us believe the idealization of mothers is oppressive to culture and
society, as well as mothers, creating layers of shame, guilt, denial,
manipulation, and deception.  We decided to dive into the dark sides
of our mothers while at the same time finding our own dark side, using
Dark Moon Lilith as a representation.  Astrologically I am a Scorpio
dark moon and Nicola is Virgo.  Whitney Houston/Blondie and Woody
Allen. Anyway. We confronted our deepest fears when blindfolded, mine
is to be tortured, Nicola to fall down and symbolically be defaced.
Both Nicola and I felt the need to represent something for our mothers
to help them.  Nicola needed to be the stoic Asian elephant and I
needed to be a princess, a saint and a Christmas present.  After
confronting our fears, I am tortured after being tied to my princess
throne and being forced to listen to the "Duck Sauce - Barbra
Streisand" song, and she falls down the stairs and has a face drawn on
her ass to symbolize defacement, we are able to detourne our roles by
sexualizing them.  Nicola rides the pink elephant and I stab an apple,
wear bows on my shoes and say "Oh God."  After releasing the false
roles we open ourselves up to African spirits, Oya goddess of
thunderstorms and dance for me and Yemaya who is an endlessly coming
woman and ocean of endless bliss for Nicola.  The projected Virgin
Mary transforms into Madonna, and we quote from Mary Magdalene's
gospel -- disdained by the official version of the Bible -- "I knew
you, but you did not know me, because you mistook my garment for my
true self."
Finally I teach moon salutations to the audience to honor mothers and
their teachings, both dark and light sides of the moon.

Comment By Nicola:
My time in Indonesia, has been marked by a lot of digging up of emotions about my family - submissive wives, Asian wives, Asian family responsibility etc. I did not expect it.

After spending time on the shamanic death of capitalism, Simbi and I realised that a whole lot of negative neurosis were still present in our psyches due to our dysfunctional families (who were also in ways products of the manipulations of capitalism). So, we started with our mothers. We were intrigued about the 'good' archetype of the mother, when there is an obvious bad 'Lilith' side. However this Lilith side offers us strengths as well. Due to us witnessing our mother's very shameful positions, we both have very little shame. Our mothers were both victims and drew us in with sympathy so first we sing "Let it Be." My mother, a victim of her own family's superstitions, subconsciously placed a lot of guilt on me especially after leaving all her family she left my abusive father, as I had to become the father of the family from a young age - she made me into a stoic elephant, to symbolise this I make an elephant out of masking tape on the window and try to fit my figure in it. Simbi was a saint, a family gift, a princess and a pesky cat for her mother, she sings 'When the Saints Come Marching In," I sing James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" as I make her up as the Princess and then Simbi turns into a cat and sings "Wish You Were Here" as I get angry with a pink stuffed cat.

We turn these expectations around by facing our biggest fears when blindfolded - confronting our fears of the dark moon. 'Simbi's fear is to be tortured, so I torture her as the Princess and sing the awfully annoying "Duck Sauce (Barbra Streisand)" song. Then, I face my blindfolded fear of falling down stairs, I myself don't want to be subjugated in the basement. So anyway, I blindfold myself and climb down the stairs to the ground level of the Gallery, while Simbi plays Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" - here begins our point of transformation. I fall down the last few stairs, Simbi then 'tortures' me by painting a face on my ass. We are having fun now. I then ride a toy pink elephant and get paint all over it from my ass. We transform then into orisha's (from Yoruba/Africa) with rituals for Oya, Undergoddess of the Niger River and Yemaya, the mother goddess. After we are transformed we do moon salutations with a plucky participant from the crowd.

The Punisher v. The Fairy Queen (Sibling Rivalry)

This performance transforms the energy from dysfunctional family roles and the influence of 'psychedelic' hippy siblings into a multiplicity of healing roles from our new community - contemporary post-modern popular culture.

Problem: Dysfunctional families generate different archetypes amongst the children such as the 'family hero,' 'scapegoat,' 'mascot' and the 'lost child.' Combined with these roles our siblings have been products of the 70's pyschedelic hippy generation where their individual pursuit of happiness has become a tool for the 'psychedelic' manipulations of capitalism. We tackle personal symbols of our dysfunctional roles (which are mostly also rooted in 'psychedelic uprising') and represent new multiplicity where we can functionally play all the roles and do not succumb to individualisation of identity and become new social healers.

We present our new healing roles: karaoke, hip-hop, Gayatri Spivak, Deleuze & Guattari, electroclash, mutant superheroes, graffiti and feminist noise by using the techniques of data moshing and shredding with projections over the symbols of our siblings: Nirvana, Bon Jovi, Noam Chomsky, Deepak Chopra, Tennessee William's 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' 'Dirty Dancing,' fairy queens, 'A Rebel Without a Cause,' and Brian Jonestown Massacre.

In Part 1 - All Apologies Nirvana v Eminem v Bon Jovi; Deepak Chopra v 'The Subaltern' Spivak v Noam Chomsky v Deleuze & Guattari v Tennessee Williams
In Part 2 - Simbi sings her own electroclash song over footage from 'Dirty Dancing' and Nicola becomes a comic book super hero aka. Rougue or Storm from X-men and sings New World Order by Ministry over Simbi being the fairy queen playing the piano and then becomes a graffitti-ing Punisher over footage from 'Rebel Without A Cause.
In Part 3 - Simbi and Nicola make a noise jam over the top of Brian Jonestown Massacre, during the show the footage was projected on us, so we actually weren't making music to the footage but I think it goes pretty well.

Simbi Comments
story of my life (electroclash v. dirty dancing, sibling rivalry part 2)

Sealskin coat of arms
One turntable and five alarms
Dollhouse furniture I can't break
Canopy bed and lacy drapes


Swamp of ghosts and basement holes
where fire and torture pull us into the mire
My mother's an enormous octopus who oozes tears
My father changes the channel -- one more rape, one more fear

Do you feel insecure? Take it out on me, I'm so very pure
I"ll love you endlessly. In the end I'll even set you free.

My wrists are blood and my lips sewn shut
The leaves change color one more year.
My dreams and visions take me out of here.

Cocoon of music
I wove you with agile fingers and fragile feelings.
Every color of the rainbow soft around me
like dewdrops on fresh flowers.
But I must destroy you
to find my powers.

Do you feel insecure? Take it out on me, I'm so very pure.
I'll love you endlessly. In the end, I'll even set me free.

The forest is deep
The forest is bold.
This is where illusions lose hold.

Geisha shadow
Magic daughter
Writing my destiny with melting face
Broken heels
Throwing ashes
Dead wood
Empty orchestra
Immaculate heart

Dressed in kimono
Lying on the bed
Oragami bats are overhead.

At least you knew me from before
All the cracks in this broken down whore
When I don't know what life is for
We can go to the limit one time more

On a ship
On a trip
this imp is wearing my rainbow dress
I'm wearing his combat boots. Awkward but strange
how well they suit.
He wants to break me down, take me power.
But as usual my words win him over.

I tell him the story of the quilombo in Brazil
where children of escaped slaves are living still
How I scrambled below the waterfall
and breathed deep pure air.
Saw pink river dolphins.
I found my home there.

Goodbye to all my magic styles
gained entrance to every club in new york and berlin through those psychic wiles
Naked I sat clothed in my skin
No tricks, no shadows, no projected ideals
Simply me and all that surrounded me

Together we could be
broken harmony

on part 1:
gayatri spivak's reading of to the lighthouse. the reason mr. ramsey the philosopher couldn't get past "r" in the alphabet is because its the beginning of his own name. representing that western philosophy couldn't progress because it could analyze other things, but didn't understand itself. and he didn't understand himself, incidentally because he couldn't understand his wife, mrs. ramsay.