PERFECT FLOWER
(2023) PERFECT FLOWER is a performative action developed in response to Safety for Women, girls and gender diverse people in public spaces. The project invites LGBTQIA+ and diverse youth groups to a collaborative project that involves performative actions, choreography, architecture, photography, and curation. Working from their chosen site in their locality, the project engages the young individuals in crafting costumes for themselves to transform their bodies and reimagine their relationship to nature, manifesting alternative realities and envisioning another future.
Perfect Flower takes a unique approach to sustainability through a queer ecological perspective, prompting participants to consider their relationship to nature, space, and visibility. Queer ecology, grounded in queer theory, challenges conventional norms of sexuality, gender, and biology. It centres on the interconnectedness between humans, plants, and animals, aiming to counter anthropocentrism by positioning ourselves alongside plant life rather than above it. The title Perfect Flower derives from the classification by biologists of flowers with both female and male reproductive parts as "perfect flowers," which constitute 90% of all flowers.
The young participants create costumes using cardboard boxes salvaged from skips and toxic-free spray paint. The project offers a platform for defiance and resistance against hetero-normativity, creating spaces where fluidity and ambiguity thrive. Through exaggerated silhouettes and embellishments, their costume creations serve to disrupt the binary constraints imposed on the body, opening possibilities for queer re-imaginations, and transporting both the performers and the viewer to a new realm of possibility and speculation.
During the performance, the young people curate themselves into their chosen public space as a performative action. They collaborate with a local photographer and manifest the work live, creating a photographic object that can be exhibited in various locations to initiate discussions surrounding nature, biology, diversity, and safety.
Concept and creation: Ulrike Steven what-if:projects
Choreography and creation: Heidi Rustgaard
Created and performed: Biff, Shelby, Jade, Aadja, Jacoda, Gideon, Star and Mahiema from Stratford Youth Zone.
Photography by: Henri T
Commissioned by: LLDC as part of ‘Safety for women, girls and gender diverse people in public spaces’
