Abstract
The Red Ladies are an international, leaderless phenomenon, known to manifest in towns and cities around the world. Their ‘performance,’ which consists of outside ‘missions’ and an indoor theatrical performance, is facilitated by Clod Ensemble who act as their auxiliary staff. Drawing on scholarship that identifies craft practices, mimicry, and the banal as strategies of resistance, this chapter argues for the transformative impact of the Red Ladies. This socially turned theatre antagonises power structures; these women appear on roofs of national institutions, walk desire lines across socially and politically divided towns, and align themselves with disenfranchised groups. They combine improvisation and movements embodying self-organisation, emergence, and co-evolution, speaking to Rebecca Schneider’s invocation that, ‘[p]ower is neither visible nor stable—thus effective resistance must make use of the invisible and the unstable’ (Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment, Routledge, 2011, 126). As the Red Ladies state: ‘We are not what you think, whatever you think we are not that.’
Their story begins on ground level, with footsteps […] They are myriad, but do not compose a series. They cannot be counted […] their swarming mass is an innumerable collection of singularities. Their intertwined paths give shape to spaces. They weave places together.
Michel De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Randall (Los Angeles: University of California Press Berkley, 1988), 97
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Notes
- 1.
Suzy Willson and Helen Eastman, “Red Ladies: Who are they and What do they want?,” in The Ancient Dancer in the Modern World: Response to Greek and Roman Dance, ed. Fiona Macintosh (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 421.
- 2.
Shannon Jackson, Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics (USA and Canada: Routledge, 2011), 14.
- 3.
Walter Benjamin, Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings 1927- 1930, trans. Rodney Livingstone, ed. Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith (Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 1999), 4.
- 4.
Nicolas Bourriaud (Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2002).
- 5.
Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and Politics of Spectatorship (London, New York: Verso, 2012), 12.
- 6.
Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, 113.
- 7.
Bishop, Artificial Hells, 25.
- 8.
Bishop, Artificial Hells, 25.
- 9.
Willson and Eastman, “Red Ladies”, 423.
- 10.
T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland and Other Poems (USA: Harcourt Inc., 1934), 41.
- 11.
Critical Art Ensemble, Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas (New York: Autonomedia, 1996), 9.
- 12.
Rebecca Schneider, Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment (USA and Canada: Routledge, 2011), 126.
- 13.
Willson and Eastman, “Red Ladies”, 425.
- 14.
Having had the opportunity to look inside their vanity cases, it is clear the Red Ladies carry many necessary accoutrements. These may include their knitting, a book, a magnifying glass, even a small microscope. Also contained within this bag is a notebook used to capture their observations. These notebooks might contain a list of flowers found in a public garden, the number of surveillance cameras in a shopping area or an enlightening exchange between the red lady and those they have encountered.
- 15.
Willson and Eastman, “Red Ladies”, 425.
- 16.
Homi. K Bhabha, The Location of Culture (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Classics, 2004).
- 17.
Homi. K Bhabha, The Location of Culture (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Classics, 2004), 122.
- 18.
Chela Sandoval, Methodology of the Oppressed (London: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 31.
- 19.
Benjamin, Walter Benjamin, 4.
- 20.
Betsy Greer, “Craftivism,” Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, ed. Gary L. Anderson and Kathryn Herr (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2007), 402.
- 21.
Peter Oswald and Clod Ensemble, Red Ladies, Unpublished Script.
- 22.
Henry David Thoreau, Walking (Maryland: Arc Manor, 2007).
- 23.
Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of Space, trans Maria Jolas (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994).
- 24.
Maureen Daly Goggin, “Threads of Feeling: Embroidery Craftivism to Protest Disappearances and deaths in the ‘War on Drugs’ in Mexico,” Textile Society of America 2014 Biennial Symposium Proceedings: New Directions: Examining the Past, Creating the Future (September 2014), 1.
- 25.
Eileen Wheeler, “The Political Stitch: Voicing Resistance in a Suffrage Textile,” Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings (September 2012), 1.
- 26.
Henry David Thoreau, Walking (Maryland: Arc Manor, 2007), 8.
- 27.
De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life.
- 28.
Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga ed., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015), 254.
References
Anzaldúa, G., and C. Moraga, eds. 2015. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Bachelard, G. 1994. Poetics of Space. Trans. M. Jolas. Boston: Beacon Press.
Benjamin, W. 1999. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings 1927–1930. Trans. R. Livingstone and Ed. M.W. Jennings, H. Eiland, and G. Smith. Cambridge: The Belknap Press.
Bhabha, H.K. 2004. The Location of Culture. Abingdon: Routledge Classics.
Bishop, C. 2012. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and Politics of Spectatorship. London, New York: Verso.
Bourriaud, N. 2002. Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du réel.
Critical Art Ensemble. 1996. Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas. New York: Autonomedia.
De Certeau, M. 1998. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. S. Randall. Los Angeles: University of California Press Berkley
Eliot, T.S. 1934. The Wasteland and Other Poems. Harcourt Inc.
Goggin Daly, M. 2014. Threads of Feeling: Embroidery Craftivism to Protest Disappearances and deaths in the ‘War on Drugs’ in Mexico. In Textile Society of America 2014 Biennial Symposium Proceedings: New Directions: Examining the Past, Creating the Future; September, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Greer, B. 2007. Craftivism. In Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, ed. G.L. Anderson and K. Herr. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Jackson, S. 2011. Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics. USA and Canada: Routledge
Oswald, P., and Clod Ensemble. 2005. Red Ladies. Unpublished Script
Sandoval, C. 2000. Methodology of the Oppressed. London: University of Minnesota Press.
Schneider, R. 2011. Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment. New York: Routledge.
Thoreau, H.D. 2007. Walking. Maryland: Arc Manor.
Wheeler, E. 2012. The Political Stitch: Voicing Resistance in a Suffrage Textile. In Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings; September, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Willson, S., and H. Eastman. 2010. Red Ladies: Who Are They and What Do They Want? In The Ancient Dancer in the Modern World: Response to Greek and Roman Dance, ed. F. Macintosh. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Lally, S. (2020). Red Ladies: Walking, Remembering, Transforming. In: Whatley, S., Racz, I., Paramana, K., Crawley, ML. (eds) Art and Dance in Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44085-5_10
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