Bully Fae Collins (US, 1990)
Residency period: August 2021 – January 2022
I arrived at Le Becque with the intention of creating a piece which demonstrates the contents of a Manual for Techno-Eco-Social-Eroticism. I coined this term in order to describe the universal libidinal flows and pervasive erotic connections which are paradigmatic of our global, industrialised civilisation; a form of eroticism that transcends boundaries between man/animal/machine/micro-organism/plant/object/system/social body. As I began using this as a writing prompt, it became clear that this was not a single project with a clear beginning or end and that it would challenge me to re-evaluate my process. The Manual for Techno-Eco-Social Eroticism is a lens through which to view the whole world as an erotic fictional place and explore all the strange intricate relationships that have formed within it. It no longer fitted into the formula I had accidentally created for myself, which I had used to create my previous works.
The idea branched off into several projects. I created a series of mock documentaries that explained the erotic potential of systems such as traffic and of cultural narratives about the environment in film. Using found footage from the internet and narrating a voice over myself, these mockumentaries have a bootleg quality, like a conspiracy documentary made by a fringe Youtuber. I created an earth instrument by planting my silverware into the grassy soil around my apartment and played it like a thumb piano. I created an essay which begins as a surreal, humorous examination of objects and spaces that is gradually intertwined with autobiographical stories. I created a script for a character who represents the planet itself, a young anime school girl named “Earth-Chan”, who expresses her desire for the world to end.
Bully Fae Collins is a performance and visual artist living in Los Angeles, CA. Using performance, they engage audiences in a dialogue about the difficulty of expressing the self in an ideologically limiting world. After receiving a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012, they created various solo-performances which have toured throughout the US and Europe. After moving to Los Angeles in 2014 they co-founded Medium Judith, an experimental theatre company with Amanda Horowitz, and co-wrote/directed several plays in Baltimore and Los Angeles. In 2017 they were resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture where they began developing their solo work, Plight Notions with Shandy, which was then commissioned by Abrons Arts Center in New York City. The piece was also performed at Les Urbaines in Lausanne (CH), and Donau Fest in Krems (AT). They have completed two residencies at PAM Residencies in Los Angeles where Bully now works as curator, developing a programme of experimental performers.
Pictures 2-4: © "Plight Notions with Shandy", Abrons Arts Center, New York City, 2019