About the performance

The climate is changing. Regimes are changing. Borders are changing; therefore, modes of self-expression, perception, and social action must evolve. As political agency becomes increasingly challenging in a world where one’s body is framed within particular racial and gendered discourses, this performative intervention establishes conditions for people to inhabit their body through the interplay between learning new movement and language, using the concept of interdependence to subvert forms of destruction that impact human beings and the ecological environment. 

In How Do We Dress for the Weather? participants are invited to learn simple choreography merging pedestrian movement with iconic images representative of “ideal bodies” in classical and contemporary art. To further problematize these normative social constructs and the colonial paradigms that they uphold, participants will experiment with vocalizing technostrategic language used to justify war and other forms of aggression by defense intellectuals. 

The group will learn phrases in English and Farsi. They are also invited to share the translations of these phrases in their preferred languages. Participants will collectively integrate movement sequences and performative utterances that reflect a pluralistic exchange while moving in, out, through, and with multiple languages and vocal expressions. 

How Do We Dress for the Weather? contributes to broader conversations surrounding ecofeminism, environmental activism, and racial justice. It explores physical, cultural, and social interactions between voice and environment, while addressing issues related to climate change and those whose lives are impacted the most by environmental hazards.

This durational performance is meant to be staged as a performative intervention during town hall meetings, protests, and parades.