FADO is pleased to present a new durational performance, Potential Fertility Rite, by TallBlondLadies. Established in 2003, TallBlondLadies is a collaborative performance project between Anna Berndtson (Sweden) and Irina Runge (Germany).
Two nearly identical tall blonde women, wearing white folklore blouses, grey leather shorts and white moon boots strapped into traditional wooden snowshoes manipulate large red exercise balls, enacting a traditional invocation rite by utilizing non-traditional gesture, action and costume. In this five-hour performance movement, TallBlondLadies repeat a ritualized synchronized dance using modern-day props, in time to the sound of snowshoes.
TBL inverts female stereotypes through the composition of absurd and unexpected performative gestures, often incorporating a range of accoutrement from high-end fashion to sports gear. Their works present diametrically opposed concepts; beauty and grace are juxtaposed and diminished through brute action and athleticism, tacitly disrupting and challenging gender-based categorizations.
—Artists Space, New York, 2007
TBL will also be performing at Hysteria Festival, an annual festival of women hosted by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, on October 24, 2009.
© TallBlondLadies, Potential Fertility Rite, 2009. Photo Stephanie Sirant.
