//BUZZCUT//

Chao-Ying Rao aka Femme Castratrice

Chao-Ying Rao (performing under Femme Castratrice) is an East Asian visual and performance artist whose practice involves negotiating complexities around objectification and narcissism, often using humour as a tool to disarm and charm the viewer. She is interested in the absurdity of desire, excessive consumption, racial and bodily fetishisation, and abject femininity. Her background in dance comes from years of working as a stripper in Edinburgh and London. Rao is inspired by vintage playboy centrefolds and misogynistic pop culture truisms. Working with Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Creed’s monstrous feminine, her performances play with that very fine line between attraction and repulsion. 

For her Emerging Artist award residency, she developed a new film & performance work Gobbling Market which will premiere in 2025.

Drawing from the narrative poem Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti with its incredibly visceral, beautiful, and sensual descriptions of fruit, longing, and friendship, the performance explores the intersections of disgust, queer desire and fetishisation through exploring new choreographies and using organic materials.

Emily Furneaux

Emily Furneaux is a multi-disciplinary artist working across performance, writing, drawing, food and dining experiences. She is guided by her lived experience; often weaving autobiographical narratives into relatable shapes and collaborative processes. After healing from a traumatic bipolar flare-up during COP 26, Furneaux has been developing a new work rooted in planetary grief; it serves as an example of how we might hold a space to grapple with such difficult emotions. Fusing spoken word, culinary works, electronic sounds and live vocal overlays, it pays tribute to three species we have recently lost to climate change - celebrating their existence in a similar way to how we come together to celebrate a human’s life at a funeral. For the initial developmental phase in the Emerging Artist Award, Furneaux will be collaborating with DJ, Producer, Sound Engineer and Singer - Isa Gordon.

Emily and Isa will be exploring the sound components of 'Waiting for Us'. They’ll be developing soundscapes for the three species that will be honoured in the performance: Of land - The Pinta Tortoise, Of Air: The Ivory Billed Woodpecker, Of Water: The Smooth Handfish. They’ll also be drawing from the eulogies that Emily has written for these species - turning certain words/phrases into melodic overlays. These explorations will inform the next stage, which will see Emily and Isa bringing on board additional voices to form the 'Choir of Tears' - a small group of amateur singers, dressed in tear-drop costumes, that will become an integral component of the live performance.