I’ve been
full of words for two weeks now. Ok. I’m always full of words but currently
they bubble over. I zone out thinking about what’s next, ideas and discussions
with people on completely mundane topics trigger ideas that swirl and consume
me. My face glazes over as I travel to another place with my thoughts.
I woke up
on June 24 to the disaster movie troupe ‘The Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom has resigned…’. My body turned to lead as I knew what it meant. I cried out involuntarily. In
the weeks leading to this and after we’ve seen a sad smorgasbord of the best
and worst of people on both sides of a polarising argument. I don’t really want
to add to that. There’s enough out there. But I feel poised, ready, angry,
fired up, calm, focused and ready to work on something. So where to start… let’s
take a gooooood look around.
In pop. Beyonce.
Well. Where
to start. Let’s talk about her ASS on the BIG ASS screen at her BIG ASS concert
in Glasgow. Beyonce’s full frontal address of the male gaze is nothing short of
superb. Bonce makes it very clear in Lemonade it's about her looking out not
YOU looking on. So her arse? Hers to do WTF she likes with. And she reaches a
hell loada people with a message few others could. Plus – who doesn’t like
walking to work smiling pondering smashing shit with a baseball bat in full couture.
Behind my wry smile. My Pals.
All I see
is familiar faces. Nice huh. My personally configured echo chambers on fb and
twitter reflected one very clear thing post June 23… and although I know we
speak to one another with similar view points, we can support each other going
out with those views and have each other’s backs. Speak UP TEAM.
In art. My Artists.
I do what I
do cos I love the work. This year – watch out for Angela Wand at Gilded
Balloon, Rachael Clerke at Summerhall, GODDAM HAWT Hot Brown Honey at Assembly
Roxy, Nassim Soleimanpour at Summerhall, Figs In Wigs at Pleasance – and the
reason I group these performers together is no comment on them above other shows – but a
feeling, a sense of creativity born out of struggle, a situation where we’ve been
told we cannot be. But here we freaking are BEING.
Maybe what
I want to say about the last few weeks is the individual is a powerful thing,
and though easily manipulated and polarised, we have to hope also there is always
room for CHANGE, always room to flip that switch, always room to remember that
the person standing alongside is a GODDAM HUMAN TOO.
Say this:
All I ask – let me be, let me be me, ass, brain, hair, fake-Scot,
embarrassed English, proud Brit, proud European, proud and full of beans to be
alive enough of the time. If we each lead a fight for that…. Maybe we have a
starting point. Looking out, what do you want to see ahead of you? Fuck dem
people looking back. Screw their inward obsession. That’s their gaze. And what
matters is they can see you standing proud and strong right in front of them.
