interactive performance piece and resulting ephemera: photographs and printed material | 2017 - present
Using many of the same words hidden within The Patterns’ Vicious Influence, our interactive performance piece You Have the Right to Remain a ___. visualizes the way hostile language is used to actively shame those not following patriarchal standards. During this interactive performance, SPOOKY BOOBS members interrupt unsuspecting participants and place them under momentary arrest for various crimes against societal norms. The arrested party is informed of the charges brought against them and directed to face the camera to have their mugshot taken before the incident is documented with a customized arrest report. The participant/perpetrator receives a copy of their written citation complete with details regarding their charges.
Performed with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek attitude, this performance piece creates interactions that provide the participant, and onlookers, to acknowledge both the blatant disrespect and the insidious nature of these labels. The allegations assigned to our participants call out behaviors and attributes such as confidence, independence, displays of emotions, and other normal and even admirable qualities. When displayed by women, these behaviors are construed to be unlikeable, non-conforming, and even threatening. Men displaying characteristics that defy patriarchal norms are slandered using words that diminish them to the status of women.
A SPOOKY BOOBS member ends the arrest, and tongue-in-cheek performance, with the statement “you have the right to remain (introverted, confident, stoic, not smiling, etc)”, validating and encouraging the participant’s right to behave as they want in spite of these insidious labels.
