The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein interrogates constructions of gender and desire in a ‘post-feminist’ cultural society, politicizing the potential for the displayed female body to manifest accesses to power or control often denied to that body.
The work blurs the lines between Live Art, Dance, Dance Theatre, Contemporary Performance and Fine Art, playing on the borderline between the virtuosic and the abject, entertainment and boredom, pleasure and humiliation, ‘the real’ and the represented, and success and failure. The performances throw into upheaval what it means to be ‘a woman’ in contemporary culture, with The Famous putting her own body at the centre of the work.
Her new work, Splat!, commissioned by SPILL Festival of Performance, premiered at The Barbican (London, UK) in 2013 and was featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Holstein’s previous works have been presented at In Between Time Festival (Bristol, UK), Fierce Festival (Birmingham, UK), Duckie (London, UK), Fresh AiR (London, UK), The Basement (Brighton, UK), and FEM Fest (Girona, Spain), among others.
Watch the Splat! trailer here
Watch the How 2 Become 1 trailer here
