Sex, ritual and herbal medicine seem an unlikely combination but this is what local performance artists Kyah Dove and Jazmine Rose have in store for audiences.
The duo have spent the past month co-creating a work they say embodies an “enlivening experience of the female essence”, with an aim to challenge concepts about female sexual identity and birth a new “collective memory” of the feminine.
The work draws on spoken word, contemporary dance, herbal medicine practice, meditation, visual art and noise production – So quite a big act really – but they say they like a challenge.
“It’s been a lot of hard work, but some beautiful creative processes have happened and our work motivates us,” Kyah says.
“Connecting and empowering women through our art inspires us.”
A graduate of The New Zealand School of dance in 2010, Kyah took off her dancing shoes for six months last year along with Rose, a Melbourne born musician and noise artist, to undergo an apprenticeship in shamanic native trees and plant medicine.
“As a part of our training we worked with specific plants to aid and support sexual healing and I believe this is where [our show’s] creative process subconsciously began.
“The witch hunts were a time of mass feminine shutdown and our work intends to reclaim the “witch” within us; the wild woman connected to her inner power and therefore her sexuality,” Kyah says.
By hybridising performance art and herbal medicine, Kyah says they hope to explore and bridge new pathways to bring about radical change.
“F(Y)UCK SEXY’s intention is to promote deep feminine and earth restoration, whether its art or ritual or activisms or even erotica is really up to your own personal perspective – it feels like all of these things to us. ”
Their work aims to allow people to explore identity and to participate in the event, Kyah says.
“There is nothing we want to say, just questions, questions, questions and exploration and even allow for the confusion to surface as there is a lot of confusion around the topic of feminine sexuality; right or wrong, wrong or right, okay or not okay, empowering or disempowering .
“I think it’s important we acknowledge that confusion and acknowledge that we each have our own truths – it means we can begin this dialogue.”
The audience is invited as witness, traveller and participant, Kyah says.
F(Y)UCK.SEXY plays at Bats Understudy (corner Dixon and Cuba St, Wellington) from Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 October at 9:30pm.
Tickets $18. Concessions $15. Bookings: bookfyucksexy@gmail.com.
Article | Holly Dove. Photos |Amy Vinicombe – amyvinicombe.carbonmade.com.
