The performance acts as a metaphor for the possibility of a resilient identity in a fast-changing world of political extremes, climate uncertainty, species extinction, and the fetishization of nature. It is an investigation of serpent mythologies, fashion’s fascination with the animal world, and the contradictions inherent in imitating the skin pattern of a species that humans both fear and kill.
Niya embodies the Snake Woman—a hybrid offspring inspired by the metamorphic ancient Greek myth of Tiresia. The hybrid creature glides between captions from online fashion videos and lines taken from Snake Poems by Margaret Atwood.
“…to talk with the body is what the snake does…”
Margaret Atwood. After Heraclitus. In Interlunar. 1984
“…if you monochrome the print
If you abstract the print
You sort of take the danger
Take the heat
Take those messages away from the animal print
You’ve just left with this nice idea of it
Without of it being too scary…”
Jess Cartner-Morley. How to dress: animal print. The Guardian. 8 November 2013.
