Showbiz refers to the elements that enable the performance to transcend the everyday and transport people to another realm.
Like many queers I am fascinated by the artificiality of watching people perform, and by performativity itself. My interest stems from the usual queer theorists but also from Bertolt Brecht. I want to show the construction of a piece, the work of it, not to smooth over the politics of how something came to be and what it might convey. I use showbiz to do this. Homosexual Death Drive showbiz encompasses access, choreography, costume and other visuals, a total performance attitude.
Access
I aim to make work that is accessible to all. There is an easy read version of this website. In 2014 I pledged never to play in venues inaccessible to those with mobility impairments. Who gets to engage with the work? Who is missing? What tactics might I use to reduce the harms of exclusion? These are considerations when making a piece.
Choreography
I make performances that move. I creep, grind, jump, collapse, sway. My movement is elegant and inelegant. My body is non-normative. I make a show of myself. I want to give people something to look at.
Costume
Drawing on my body, animal costumes, queer gender, homemade silhouettes, balaclava, sequins, feathers. There have been different phases of costume, continuities of signifiers. Costumes make the everyday strange.
Visuals
I use slideshows to share pictures, a scrapbook, to reveal my sources and influences. I like to entertain with images, use them as a counterpoint to the live performance. They are subliminal touchstones and add to the sensory overwhelm of the encounter.
Simon Murphy’s Homosexual Death Drive Flickr set, our most complete collection of live photographs.