“An Effigy (To The Girl of Our Dreams)” is a video work exploring the commodification of the femme body in male dominated politics and subcultures. Referencing choreography from Pina Bausch’s “The Rite of Spring”, cabaret theatre aesthetics, and music and lyrics from the 70s punk movement, we reopen a conversation surrounding how the femme body is sacrificed at the behest of a male entitlement.

Accompanied by a simulated “xerox” fanzine, I further submit myself as a subject to a process of objectification; becoming a product, and buying into this commodification/fetishization. 

Is this a response or resignation? How are we complicit?

Artist Bio:

James Knott is an emerging, Toronto-based artist who’s practice employs tactics of “self-mythologizing” as a means to bridge personal narratives into communal ones.

Combining theatre, video, and audio with an emphasis on movement/gesture to create immersive and emotionally resonant experiences, their work exploring themes of paradoxical and queer identity, archetypes of desire, and the commodification of the femme body.

Image ID:

An image of a used video cassette cover features floating heads in agony superimposed on top of headless performers in lingerie.

Documentation by Em Moor