I Rise

'I Rise' is a durational performance piece that explores the embodied, corporeal and tactile encounters with language, specifically a queering of language that surrounds issues of sexuality, identity, and mental health. The piece incorporates passages from the poem Threshold by author Maighread Medbh in an effort, from a lesbian and feminist perspective, to make a connection to the internal conflict and violence that have traditionally rendered queer subjects as mentally unstable.

Through flurries / through battles / through love-making / haggles / hassles / hauling / bleeding / screaming / smoking thatch / the withering / cloud / crowds / thinning eyes / I rise.

Conflicting narrative interpretations have been made about the history of lesbianism due to traditions, language, and the perilous stigma associated with expressing queer female desire. This has enabled a queering and re-imagining of history and mythology in order to find representation that is often fragmented and full of gaps. I Rise consists of repetitive physical gestures; cutting, carving, chiselling, ripping, and grasping. A section of Medbh's Threshold will be gouged into the board in an attempt to perform the queer female body as a site of conflict, to work through these 'battles' that celebrates a sense of strength, durability, and power.

Chloe Austin (she/her) is a visual artist, working with video, text and installation within her current practice. She is currently a PhD Researcher at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. Chloe completed her MFA at BSOA in 2020, after receiving her BA in Fine Art and Design at Crawford College in Cork in 2017. She is a studio member of Flax Arts Studios and is currently in residence at Digital Arts Studios as part of their Future Labs Foundation Residency Programme.