Fishwives Revenge
I was part of We Are Visible We Are Invisible a national day of art and performances throughout the UK by disabled artists. It was an amazing experience to be linked with so many other disabled creatives and best of all I got to perform at my dream location TATE ST IVES!
I’d scheduled the day so I began at the gallery leading a performance down to the sea before returning to the gallery and spending the time being in the space allowing people space to come and have a chat and find out why I was dressed so brilliantly. It opened up a lot of discussions about disability queerness how difficult it is to transition. Then finishing out the day with a final performance at the beach. The film is a documentation of that performance.
Mid performance shot – at the end of a very long day.
TATE ST IVES
Join us for a playful, satirical and absurd performance on Porthmeor beach and at Tate St Ives
Alex Billingham’s queer melodrama reenacts the mythical battle between human, deity and the sea. Over two thousand years ago the Roman Emperor Caligula declared war on Neptune, God of the ocean. Now it’s time for an ultra-glam rematch.
Billingham uses experimental theatre and film to explore genderqueer, trans and disabled experience. In Fishwives Revenge, the sea and its tides symbolize the intersectional spaces of Billingham’s own identity and the continually changing landscape of the artist’s body.
‘Fishwives Revenge reflects my experiences of existing with a fluid body; my everyday normal shifts from second-to-second depending on a thousand micro factors. In this performance every little defect gets respect. My disability and queerness sit beside me in the work, ever present but never defining me.’
Alex Billingham
Guardian Article-
Performance timings
10.00: Billingham begins battle with the ocean on Porthmeor beach
16.30: The artist returns to Porthmeor beach to apologise to the ocean for her earlier actions
This work is part of We Are Invisible We Are Visible which marks the 102nd anniversary of the 1st International Dada Exhibition. Thirty-one d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent artists are staging interventions at thirty museums and galleries across the UK. Dada was an art movement formed in response to the horror and recklessness of the First World War.
We Are Invisible We Are Visible channels the defiant and absurdist spirit of the Dada movement, purposefully provoking visitors to reflect on the societal barriers that continue to restrict and exclude disabled people today.
Links below –
Tate St Ives –
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/fishwives-revenge
DASH –
https://www.dasharts.org/projects/we-are-invisible-we-are-visible.html
Disability Arts online –