Estrogenesis, by Embittered Swish

Embittered Swish is a performance art vehicle founded in 2016 whose first project was a trans adaptation and reformulation of Jean Genet’s 1943 novel Our Lady of the Flowers. Embittered Swish works across a fine art, theatre and club context and has shown work at Performance Space (PACT), Transgenre, La Mama Courthouse, firstdraft gallery, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Brunswick Mechanics Institute and Monstagras.

Embittered Swish’s Next Wave festival 2018 show Estrogenesis interrogated the medicalisation and commodification of trans identities. Estrogenesis was about a futile resistance to the oppressive medical system in the near future where gender transitioning has become suspiciously streamlined and binary. The work was episodic and used live music, dance, projections and poetic monologues to show struggles for power, alliances formed and betrayals enacted. The work featured a live electronic music score by Romy Fox, costume design by Debris Facility, set design by M’ck McKeague and Jacs Antcliff, and translations in Auslan by Bethany Robinson.