Flygirl
2017
Performance
32:00 mins
Developed with support from the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (Troy, New York) as part of the International Residency Program by Australia Council for the Arts; and the Responsive Residency at Critical Path (Sydney, Australia)
Click here to view documentation at the Channels Festival iteration in 2017
(Please contact me for the password)
Flygirl
2017
Two-channel digital video, colour, sound
32:00 mins
Click here to view an excerpt
(Please contact me for the password, or to view the video in full)
Flygirl [S01E05] (Live Recording)
2017
Digital video, colour, sound
0:32 secs
Click here to view video in full
(Please contact me for the password)
Flygirl is a solo dance installation that reimagines forgotten hip-hop choreographies. It is a performance of choreographic interludes, sampling dance routines performed by the all-female troupe of ‘Fly Girls’ from the 90s US television series, In Living Color.
This work examines the narrative of the female body, especially one of colour, historically used as filler, or as a device to fill in the gaps in male dominated spaces. In the act of centering these peripheral or marginalised bodies, that are often forgotten in televisual history, Flygirl playfully reframes nostalgia and cultural memories (rightfully so), by taking the platform of the 32-second dance interlude and executing it 32 times, as the main body of choreography for 32-minutes, the duration of an entire episode.
Using the aesthetics and technology of the green screen, Flygirl expands on the notion of a dance floor, and negotiates the staging of performance live in real-time and on screen, transforming the format of video into a utopic space that explores the possibilities of duration, repetition and re-performance.
Exhibition History: Smack Mellon (2019); Latrobe Regional Gallery (2018); THE SUBSTATION, Performance Contemporary at Carriageworks (all 2017)
Photo Credit: Mick Bello, courtesy of the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center