I had a lot of fun making this piece! It’s a musing on notions of identity, innocence and experience. In my imaginings the children operate as bandits, the world of ‘play’ becomes a lawless landscape in which they are free to adopt and change the ‘me’ they project at will. Society’s conventions of gender and sexuality are immaterial in this realm and lie in ruins.
Sex, gender, equality, feminism ... A lively debate!
*A West African proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
An aphorism famously adopted by the American president Teddy Roosevelt as ‘Big stick diplomacy’ - the principle of which is negotiating peacefully, but also having strength in case things go wrong.
The inspiration for this piece was past expectations of how girls were ‘supposed’ to look and society’s labelling of them... ‘Doll’ ‘Tomboy’... ‘Plaything’ ... and even now the continued transference and proliferation of limiting stereotypes to new technologies and digital realms.
A word about the title: I loved this phrase growing up- it’s an Irish proverb - still used to give hope to the love-lorn or misfitting - there’s a place and a match for all of us! I was interested in conveying the slightly awkward but companionable tension between the characters in this work- so much of life runs in that vein for so many of us.