Cover Yourself, (2023) 10 mins
Costume, Audio Narrative, Dance
July 3rd 2023 | London Gallery Weekend
Cooke Latham Gallery, London UK
 
 

Lisa Marie Harris RESPONSES CookeLathamGallery

PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTATION
Images courtesy the artist
Photographer: Jamie Genovese
 
 

'Cover Yourself' is a sculptural performance work set to the sound of calypso, soca and an audio narrative recorded by Lisa-Marie Harris, in which the artist interacts with and activates the sculptures included in her exhibition 'RESPONSES (To Things I've Been Told About My Body).' Utilising the garb and movement of the Afro-Tinbagonian folk courtship dance, bélé, the performance work is mounted in response to the often contradictory rebuffs and slurs the artist first received during her pre-pubescent childhood in Trinidad - attacks which persisted to her present state as a mother in London. In so doing, the performance and the disrobing which occurs in response to the audio prompts to cover onself and be virtuous thus confronts the agentic denials that underpin the hyper vigilant, intergenerational monitoring of women's bodies by men and women alike.