Abstract
In this chapter, Denise Varney asks what happens when the environment becomes the subject and object of feminist enquiry as it does with ecofeminist performance, particularly around the concept of nature, and its associations with the innate qualities of character or things. While ecocriticism and theory is well developed in theatre and performance studies through the work of Una Chaudhuri, Baz Kershaw, Wendy Arons and Theresa May, and Steve Bottoms, among others—ecofeminist performance remains a minority form of feminist theory and activism. She then considers the Australian activist ensemble, the Climate Guardians, who stage outdoor performance actions dressed as angels in long white gowns adorned with large swooping organza wings. Utilizing a mode of performance consisting of hosting, gathering, or manifesting en masse in public spaces including in Paris for COP 21, she argues that this fascinating troupe draws on iconic traditions, not to reactivate them in an essentialist way but to dissolve the destructive divisions between the human and non-human worlds. In conclusion, Varney argues that the Climate Guardians' efficacy is based in a rejection of dualisms even as they evoke them. They appropriate and radicalize spectacular iconography to contest climate change discourse in the public arena.
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Notes
- 1.
All references to the Climate Guardians’ statements, press releases, and commentaries are from the ClimActs website: www.climacts.org.au. Discussion of the Climate Guardians’ protests draws on photographic documentation of activist interventions that are also available at the same address. Where possible I have added titles to guide readers to the source. Elsewhere the site hosts an online archive where actions can be located by month and date.
- 2.
Nature with a small ‘n’ refers to the ‘the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, and the landscape, as opposed to humans or human creations’ (OED 2017). Yet this innocuous definition reproduces uncritically the dualism of human and non-human beings and objects.
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Varney, D. (2018). Climate Guardian Angels: Feminist Ecology and the Activist Tradition. In: Stevens, L., Tait, P., Varney, D. (eds) Feminist Ecologies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64385-4_8
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