Farieda Nazier was in residence at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture at NIROX from 22 May – 18 June 2023. During this time she produced a sculptural installation (To Cleave the Earth Asunder) around which she developed a performance or “spectre.” Titled Fauna: The Spectacle Lure (2023), this film serves to document the performance. It is screened alongside the garment worn by Nazier, which adopts upholstered fabric, found objects, seed beads, and embroidery.

As per the artist statement, the work “speaks to historical and contemporaneous commodification of the body. The work relocates social media, in particular Reality TV, as a neo-liberal extension of the age-old Human Zoo or Freak Show prominent between the 1840s and the 1920s. Reality TV is now normalised, and in many instances feeds into notions of voyeurism and the consumption of the other; the weird, extraordinary, and grotesque. Today’s Western heteronormativity is closely tied to the body politics of othering, eugenics, and race. My work speaks to the perpetuation of othering, and how social Darwinism has become hidden in plain sight. The ‘Freak Show’ trope, now more accessible than ever via social media platforms, is a new technocratic way in which oppressors profit through dehumanisation and colonialism.”

The performance took place on 24 June, and was followed by a panel discussion with the artist, Shonishani Netshia, and Dee Marco, which can be accessed via the transcript in the catalogue.