Vertical Strike explores the contemporary feminist landscape, in reference to its past, and in regard to its future. This three-part, multi-format project uses historical feminist mantras as motifs, as they are embodied and performed in the twentieth century. Its title is given in reference to the inheritance of feminist thought, the hierarchies that render intersectionality necessary, and the work, rest and demands that precede any stride forwards. The word strike, incidentally, refers dually to labour strikes and to violence or gesture.
Vertical Strike, Act I follows in the lineage of feminist performance art and dance, involves its history using the voices and words of preceding feminist scholars/activist/artists, and examines and performs the often-embodied intersections of sex, gender, race, class, ability, citizenship, and language.
Vertical Strike, Act II. A short film featuring three female boxers from the Municipal Athletic Club in Bordeaux. Placing the boxers in a “face-off” against traditional works of art from the collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, this work is presented in the form of a mise-en-abyme and questions the place of women in art history.
Vertical Strike, Act III represents a radical reimagining of the conventional narrative of art history. It is a deliberate and powerful “rewriting” of what has come before and what will follow, reframing the timeline of art and its significant events. Rather than accepting the traditional linear structure of art history, which has often excluded or marginalized the contributions of women, this act, featuring 14 performers, offers a transformative perspective that challenges these boundaries. It invites the audience to reconsider not just the roles women have played in art, but the very framework through which art history has been constructed.
