Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings

Portraits is a new performance that takes inspiration from the artists’ 2020 film In My Room, a moving image work that critically unveils male-only social and sex spaces, and considers the practice of public sex between men as a nexus of power and world-building. For Portraits, Quinlan and Hastings imagine what a woman dominated public space would look like, symbolically, socially, culturally, economically and historically. Informed by Quinlan’s and Hastings’ ongoing exploration of gender, sexuality and power, and their research into conservative feminism, the artists utilise the same analytical framework they have applied to male culture to look at women and how they occupy the public realm. Portraits paints a picture that veers from utopian and naive visions of a female-dominated society as caring and non-violent, and considers real world issues that define women's space and culture, such as infighting, racism, homophobia and transphobia.

In Portraits, Quinlan and Hastings have collaborated with NYX: electronic drone choir, a collaborative drone choir and electric chorus who re-embody live electronics and extended vocal techniques to reshape the role of the traditional female choir. Working with the artists, NYX’s Musical Director Sian O’Gorman has produced a unique and otherworldly sound composition comprising revised segments of popular musical references, field recordings of domestic sounds, such as washing flapping in the wind and dishes being washed by hand in a small kitchen, and loops of spoken word layers from an article titled “Woman’s Work for the Empire” (The Times, 1910).

Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, Portraits

Music: Sian O'Gorman for NYX: electronic drone choir

NYX: electronic drone choir Performers: Sian O'Gorman, Ruth Corey and Adélaïde Pratoussy

Costumes: Alex Margo Arden

Film edit: Mateo Villanueva Brandt