That '70s Ho: Afternoon Delight

Description:

As a part of the closing program of That ’70s Ho: A Celebration of Women and Performance Circa 1970, Margaret Dragu, Joelle Ciona, Devon Guest, Aluna-Maya, Jean Smith, Irene Loughlin, Cindy Mochizuki, Gretchen Elsner, and Lindsay Clarke performed at Guelph Park and Western Front. 

At Western Front, Margaret Dragu led a performance workshop in which she baked bread with participants. Guided by the group’s “choreography by chance,” the baking process allowed them to gather, visit, and dance before distributing the bread to the public in a performative action. 

Performers activated Guelph Park with installations and roving performances. Cindy Mochizuki performed as miss umeboshi, costumed as a Japanese pickled plum. She pushed a cart around the park and sought out strangers to offer them a mysterious box containing a psychic love prophecy.   

Aluna-Maya’s performance-installation consisted of being cocooned in layers of purple-hued organza fabric while suspended from a tree. The installation had ritualistic embellishments such as a white ring on the grass around the tree and a hanging apple with a bite taken out of it. While enclosed within the semi-translucent cocoon, Aluna-Maya vocalized both animalistic noises and chant-like melodies. 

Devon Guest’s performance-installation We Are Not Alone invited the public to sit with the artist facing a tree with a mirror positioned directly in view. The performance was intended as a portal, with Guest only addressing and engaging with visitors through the mirror’s reflection. An anthropomorphised easel fitted with clothing served as a didactic—the performance was intended as a portal following the esoteric Dreamspell calendar and dedicated to numerous female performance artists.   

Irene Loughlin paid homage to Ana Mendieta’s Silueta Series (1973–78), especially Mendieta’s intention to point out the connection between the “violated” earth and the assault of women. Loughlin marked her silhouette with rope, which she then doused in lighter fluid and set on fire. She invoked ritualistic and funerary aspects, filling the marked form with dirt and placing flowers as if it was a grave.

Video documentation is available upon request.