Phalanges 2014 - 2020
Performance | Latex gloves | Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge / The Key Theatre, ​Peterborough / Love Light Festival, Norwich
Supported by Arts Council England  

​Phalanges put a finger up at social order and symbolic cleanliness while pointing to pandemic problems. An excess of hygienic latex gloves reshape the body into an obtrusive yellow-tinged bulk, exposing only toes peeping beneath. The protruding surface reduces the hierarchical order of the anatomy into fertile phalluses and obscene udders. Through improvised performance, the once protective gloves infectiously wobble, with movements leaving a trail of shedded latex behind. Each costume is composed of around 1000 mass-produced gloves contrasting with the laborious hand-made production methods of sewing, inflating and tying. Individuals become anonymous under the surface, allowing them to behave outrageously and out of character; some become single explorers while others stick with the tribe, naughtily interrupting the flow of others. New variants of the Phalanges species have evolved to glow in the dark with pastel reds and mystical aquas.

Film: Rosie Cooper

Photo: Rosie Cooper

Photo: Rosie Cooper

Photos: Rosie Cooper