DIY: 2017 – Gareth Cutter & Paul Hughes: Men From Behind
A creative enema of filthy writing, subversive image making and public interventions via the back door
Project summary
Join us for a weekend sleepover in Folkestone where artists of all genders and sexualities will consider opening up the male body, placing this obscene figure in public, and de-gendering the penetrative act.
In The Penetrated Male, author Jonathan Kemp argues “male subjectivity is only intelligible – paradoxically – through a penetrability it cannot subsequently concede, but must actively avoid if it is to retain its masculine status.”
Associated with (but not restricted to) anal sex, man’s fear of penetration – deemed passive and feminine – has sealed his body off, made his other orifices (eyes, ears, mouth) potentially treacherous, and constipated the flow of private experiences into the open. Underpinning this fear is a gendered binary which dictates what kind of behaviour is acceptable and expected of him, and of others.
So, how can combinations of writing, visual and performance practices dissolve these binaries, stimulate the flow of male subjectivity, and sneak the results under the radar of public decency? Come and find out as we approach men from behind.
How to apply
Via the link below, applicants are invited to complete short statements about their practice, what they expect to bring and take away from the DIY, and a time they have been penetrated or taken a passive position in some way.
While primarily concerned with the penetrated male, the workshop is open to participants from a broad range of gender identities and backgrounds in order to create a rich and varied discourse on the topic, and how it affects us all. To consider the penetrated male body in situ, we need to select a few who self-identify as male, but everyone is welcome to apply.
The workshop is ideal for early to mid-career artists in disciplines encompassing performance (across the realms of live art, body art, dance, theatre etc), writing and visual arts, who are both open to cross-disciplinary approaches and comfortable with pushing their personal and artistic boundaries in relation to penetrability. Participants will be supported in negotiating consent in undertaking acts that encounter their own and another person’s body/self throughout the workshop, but ought to be confident in regards to their own agency.
A small bursary pot is available to help support travel expenses for the weekend in Folkestone for those who could otherwise not attend. Rough and ready overnight accommodation can be provided at ]performance s p a c e[.
The deadline for applications is Mon 19 June at 12noon.
Dates, time and location
Dates: 11-13 Aug 2017
Times: 7pm start on Fri, followed by 2 full workshop days, and departure Sun evening
Location: Folkestone
The artists
Gareth Cutter is a London-based artist whose works span writing, Live Art, theatre and music. Recent credits include Beta Public and Tender Loin (2017), SPILL Festival of Performance National Platform (2016), ‘Queer at Queen’s’ Outburst Festival (2016 & 2015), and Haphazard (2015).
Paul Hughes is a Nottingham-based artist working across choreographic, visual and performance art contexts. Recent credits include work at Rich Mix, Forest Fringe and Battersea Arts Centre, and performing for artists including Vlatka Horvat, Chris Goode’s ‘Ponyboy Curtis’, and Simon, Colin and I.
If you have questions about this project, please contact Gareth.
This DIY is supported by ]performance s p a c e[ as part of DIY Gateway, supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Banner image credit:
LOAD by Gareth Cutter (image courtesy of the artist)
Part of DIY: 2017
Professional development projects by artists for artists across the UK
DIY: 2017 – Bedfellows: SEX TALK MTG (Sunrise to Sunset)
It’s about sex. Sex as education. Sex re-education.
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Bridget Floyer & Susan Merrick: Your Neck Of The Woods
“Why should anybody listen to you if you are not a good neighbour?”
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Call for Participants
Professional development projects conceived and run by artists for artists
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Catherine Hoffmann: Maybe Jumping Is Enough
A human flea circus 3 day residency with the StenchWench
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Daniel Oliver: Max DYSPRAXE’S performance world neurodivergent revolution fun-time
Destroy and rebuild the world of performance and make it weirder and awkwarder and wonderfuler, just like you
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Daniella Valz Gen & Jade Montserrat: From a Creative Case to an Ecology of Care
A two day research and sharing retreat investigating definitions of ‘diversity’
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Ellie Griffiths & Greg Sinclair: Neuroaesthetics
Reimagining the neurodiverse performance space
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Fabiola Santana: Houses of Decay – An Intervention
Let’s explore together the potential for connection and humanity by creating new rituals to deal with death
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Giovanna Maria Casetta with Helena Waters: Help The Aged
A traditional seaside weekender for ageing artists with a punk/anarchic ethos
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Jack Tan: Law In The Limelight
Developing insights on law through performance and theatre practice
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Jessie McLaughlin & Jo Chattoo: We Are Family FC
Queer people exploring our queer bodies by chatting, kicking footballs, gentle boxing stuff, rapping, running, dancing…
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Johanna Linsley & Rebecca Collins: The Felixstowe Affair – a sonic detective story
An acoustic investigation of the Suffolk coast for composers and sonic artists
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Katherina Radeva: On Otherness
Identity is a complex thing. Difference is beautiful.
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Madeleine Hodge & Rebecca Conroy: Marrickville School of Economics – Summer School
Fuck your extraction economy
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Marikiscrycrycry: THE T R A P LAB
A dance workshop series, curated club night, open laboratory, and curated self-care night to dance our dreams into reality
Read moreDIY: 2017 – max+noa: How to Build Boats and Influence People (to build boats)
Five days making your own skin-on-frame coracle somewhere outside in Northumbria and thinking about things quite a bit
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Network 11: Sounding In, Sounding Out 2.0
A workshop for artists working with sound and performance using the black diaspora as their centre of navigation
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Peter McMaster: Performing Landscapes
A 4-day retreat exploring eco-centric approaches to performance making
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Rachel Mars & Greg Wohead: Locating Your Own Audaciousness
A reckless retreat exploring the possibilities of audaciousness culminating in a strictly one-off performance
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Sara Zaltash: Approaches to Embodied Islam
A curious, performative invitation towards embodied practices of the Islamic faith
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Tara Fatehi Irani: Her Eyes Under the Bridge
Entangling personal stories of leaving behind and moving ahead
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Zoe Czavda Redo, Tuuli Malla, Xavier Velastin: Water Bodies
A symposium, on land and in water, for adapting to life on an inundated planet
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Zoe Toolan: Whisky – the ‘spiritual’ art of getting an artist out of their head
You definitely need a dram…
Read moreAlso
DIY: 2004 Projects
DIY 2 offers artists working in Live Art the opportunity to take part in a unique series of short training and professional development projects conceived and run BY artists FOR artists
Read more