‘This propensity for boxing and labelling of people according to externally imposed identity categories was brilliantly lampooned in the event that took place as part of Emma Haugh’s exhibition at the Joinery. Billed as an interview with the artist conducted by the curatorial duo Kate Strain and Rachel Gilbourne, it was in fact a loosely scripted performance. Over the course of forty minutes the interviewers subjected Haugh to increasingly awkward and ludicrous questions, most of which asked her to explain her work from the perspective of various pigeonholes such as feminist, social activist, queer artist and so on. It’s a testament to how common such reductive categorisation is, even within the supposedly enlightened realms of artistic discourse, that the audience sat through this in stunned silence, only seeming to realise what was happening when Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll, curator of the exhibition, thanked everyone for attending “the performance” at the end.’ Hugh McCabe, ‘Dancing About Architecture’ 2014.

Performed as part of the exhibition A Score for Five Photographs at The Joinery 2014

︎ Review by Hugh McCabe Dancing About Architecture