Judith Greenaway

GENDERFICATION: CITY OF SYDNEY AND THE LEFTOVERS COLLECTION

Together with the City of Sydney, The Leftover Collective will present RETHINK THE RADICAL as part of Sydney’s Disruptive Library series.

GENDERFICATION is the first experiment in a series of 3 commissioned by the City. It asks if we, as a contemporary society understand and can be satisfied by story regardless of the gender portrayed and pronouns spoken.

 faer, she, it, he, hir, hu, xe, ze, ey, they, + 

This unique artwork deals with the concepts and norms of gender inclusive of binary, non binary and fluid gender identification as opposed to biological sex. 

The hypothesis? If indeed traditional gender is required for contemporary story telling culturally. A radical experiment, to glean if an audience understand the same story - the orientation / complication / resolution regardless of actors gender or sex.

Performed is an anonymous Jacobean text from the 16th century. All performers have the same speech. But language pronouns and the structure of each have been thoughtfully shifted. Each speech is unique. Actors and Performers are unaware of each others text. You’re on a quest to find the authentic speech and simultaneously dissect gender and its roots of ‘authenticity’. 

Via simple participation the audience self initiate a series of questions relating to what they see, what they perceive, what they hear, what is performed and the impact of the story and whether the performer’s gender, and / or their identification plays a role.

The artists identify themselves within traditional and new norms of gender.  Hosting the night is Dr. Jessica Kean who will guide, shape and provoke the proceedings. Jessica Kean is a Scholarly Teaching Fellow in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. Prior to this position, Jessica was employed as a sessional lecturer in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies from 2014-2016, having completed her PhD in 2014.

Participants include

Andrew Guy
Muhammad Ali Q | Amar
Mara Aplin
Rosie
Kipp Lee
Sophie Kelly
Rebecca Moret
Alexander McIntyre
Ladonna Rama

 

GENDERFICATION is Sept 27 Surry Hills Library , Nov 01 Haymarket Library and  Dec 06 Green Square Library.  You can see more about this unique performance at The Leftovers Collective website and the City of Sydney website. There is also a video teaser on Vimeo.