,Francisco Zhan,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,About
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I'm not a girl, I am a woman
– Wait I'm a corset –
2021
Performing as Corset Ex-wifelet
Heads Bodies Legs x St. Margaret's House, London
24 July 2021
Act co-created with Yuki Nishimura
Corset by Matthew Morishima
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,, In the 18th century, ‘molly’ was a slang word for a homosexual man, or a trans woman.
,, It was also a term for a working-class woman who may have been a sex worker.
,, The Molly Houses were the meeting place for the 18th century queer subculture.
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The Molly’s Masquerade was a community arts and heritage project which celebrated our 18th century queer heritage though a year-long programme of creative workshops. , Throughout the pandemic Heads Bodies Legs in partnership with St. Margaret’s House, delivered participatory workshops which celebrated the history of the 18th century mollies and Molly Houses. , The year-long creative programme culminated in a masquerade ball and walk about experience in the pleasure gardens of St. Margaret’s House, Bethnal Green. |
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I'm not a girl, I am a woman / – Wait, I'm a corset – tells the story of Corset Ex-Wifelet, a female figure inspired by the Molly Houses, vogue / Ballroom culture, and modern Pride, and the ways these dreamt to reclaim territory in their own time. But what do they mean in today’s fully financialised world ? |
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In the poem, written from an orientalised object's point of view, the Corset marries a sugar daddy figure, then grows up and out of it. It tells a story from the ambivalent position of a willing participant. , Fictioned from dates, hook-ups, pop imaginaries and songs, the poem revises colonial attitudes and visions we've inherited from Molly House days and the height of Empire, and the racial and queer liberation movements of the 70's and 80's. , We were thinking of history not as a relic or inert, but as alive, persistent and embodied in our everyday lives. |
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The act is about collective, historical narratives, and where these fictions and myths meet us today, in the midst of our collective, financialised addictions to Retromaniac trends – with modern Pride turned corporate pride. , We hoped for the piece to act as a ritual, or a non-Western technology to address history... to call forth, recall, and speak back to collective trauma, in a practise of possession: through Francisco's self-objectification, being possessed by the corset, its story, and its story's rhythm. |
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By bringing this corset's story to life, we hoped to revise some of these haunted histories, and help fill gaps between collective narratives. , , , But ultimately, the act is an ode to finding your own way.
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. ~ Francisco Zhan and Yuki Nushimura 2021 , ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,** ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Special thanks: Matthew Morishima for the corset Matthew Faulkner for mixing the audio Smashlyn Monroe for teaching Burlesque and helping the act come to life. Heads Bodies Legs for building and holding this space for us. |
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