Putting Bodies at the Heart of Resistance

From Frieze:

‘We make art with our cunt,’ wrote ’90s cyberfeminists, VNS Matrix. ‘Gender abolitionism’ (Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation, 2015) has marked a shift in rhetoric, and Cornelia Sollfrank was the only 2017 delegate I remember to use the c-word. ‘The womb should be deemed obsolete,’ said artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang in the ‘What Can Post-Cyber Feminism Do For Reproductive Justice?’ panel, where biohacker Mary Maggic pointed up the ‘fuzzy biological sabotage’ of our already ‘biopolitically … colonized’ semi-human, non-binary bodies. Unapologetic ‘womb power’ (for example, Tabita Rezaire’s ‘radical self-love kit’ in her 2016 film Peaceful Warrior) came largely from BAME delegates. E. Jane’s musical persona MHYSA (‘she’s real because I put her on the internet’) celebrates ‘black femme’ identity. These two were part of a number of Friday night film screenings as part of ‘Glitch Shorts’ which were followed by a Glitch@Night music session by SCRAAATCH where, Legacy Russell said, ‘we’ll throw some moves,’ putting bodies at the heart of resistance.

“Post-Cyber Feminist International 2017”, Joanna Walsh, Frieze