“Wild Rose”, a 4 hour-long performance, confronts the romanticization of the female body and its objectification as it can manifest through its comparison to flowers. The ephemeral charm of flowers is an analogy with how our patriarchal society rewards women based on their youth, beauty, submissiveness and decorative value.
The performance took place at a Victorian farmhouse in rural Ireland. In the 18th century, a woman was held prisoner in the house by her cousin because she was “unruly”. I performed in a pink bathtub with wild roses gathered from the property’s grounds, in the room that is suspected to have been the woman’s cell. During the action, I was holding the wet roses above my head and drops fell onto my face like tears. Then, I would take the petals off the roses and let them float on the water. I let the stems fall on the tiled bathroom floor.
During the 20 day residency, I was reading “Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf and I was thinking of the Victorian Era Gothic works “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James.
I caught myself singing the following lyrics from the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song “Where the Wild Roses Grow” while I was wandering around the house grounds. The song is based on a femicide song that have derived from Irish sources from the early 19th century.
“They call me The Wild Rose
but my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day”
“Wild Rose” was produced at Live Art Ireland residency on June 15, 2024, after a series of workshops by Marilyn Arsem and Mark Leahy. The performance started at 12pm and ended at 3:40pm. Documentation by Alisa Alho and Mariya Hoyin.
