Still Life with Woody, Performance
Crochet performance, using a wooden phallus as a crochet hook. this performance is part of a body of work: Touchwood, which is part of another body: Ouma se Kind Ouma se Kind A couple of years ago I encountered the term ‘ouma se kind’ [grandmother's child]. I was informed that the term is used as a reference to gay people, usually gay men, and seems to come from the north east part of South Africa. The term had been introduced to me by a man who was sharing his coming out [as gay] story with me. I was born at a time when homosexuality was criminal in South Africa. It was an absurd time. Not only did I find myself to be a criminal by virtue of being [homo]sexual, I also understood, in a dark and pre-/nonverbal way, that being gay was also culturally taboo. That is to say; within my family, schools and communities that I grew up in it was not ok to be gay. I contracted into myself and lived a fair number of years in denial. To throw into the mix; my grandmother, who I adored,
