‘The Liberation of Hecate: A Performance by Iris’ by Patrycja Wojciechowsha, 28th September 2026
An extract from this essay about my 15th May performance of ‘Hecate’:
‘Dionysus mask. The primal scream from space with no time and no air. Can we speak of possession in this context? Is the triple goddess inhabiting the mask? The protagonist’s hands are possessed by a feral witch, who tries to break through the surface.
In a way, it is a fight over the ownership of the female body and psyche. Hecate claims hers. The need of capital to control everything and everyone, is prevailing in the contemporary world. Once a woman removes herself from the established order, to the position on the fringes of that market-place that our lives have become, she is someone of non-value. There is no point in investing in her. A woman who does not play by the rules, and does not bring any profit, needs to be erased.
The protagonist is different, non-normative, not completely human. A monster. A witch. And so Hecate metamorphoses in order to claim her internal self-worth. I think of how women are still being perceived now. Part animal, part monster and always in part, a mask. To play her role. To entertain.
The protagonist considers her prescribed future showing in the iced-over sea, all expectations submerged in the distant line where water meets the sky. Each one of her garments symbolises the mask she is expected to take on. But she wants other face, another role, a different future.’
‘BEIMA Collective. Bridging Radical Empathy.’ by Patrycja Wojciechowska, 3rd April 2026 (Interview with other members of BEIMA)
‘Again, even the non-human is still gendered as the monstrous feminine. We played quite a lot with monstrosity recently, like spitting out seeds on the stage and stuff like that. So I think it’s quite a fun way to access the ideas of othering, and a way to show how ridiculous they are, is to take them to the extreme. Almost to a different level.’
Photography: Tim Hand
‘Queer Butoh Festival: Still Life‘ by Jen George, 18th July 2025 (Review of ‘Fruit of My Woman’ at Queer Butoh Festival 2025):
‘“Fruit of My Woman” by Oxford-based Alice Baldock gives similarly intimate access. Sitting with her legs straddled and bent, spine exposed, Baldock presents as a sturdy, thoughtful triangle. In a violent hugging motion, she grabs at the flesh of her back, leaving reddish prints behind. The audience receives Baldock’s uncomfortable fingerprinted signature as a visual metaphor for what the program describes as the “suffocating pressures of ‘straight time’—to get married, to have children, etc.” Ultimately, Baldock bites open a pomegranate, sullying her dress with chunks of the fertile fruit.’
‘From Rupture to Ritual in “Of Mirrors and Shadows”/”Flesh to Ashes”‘ by Elspeth Chan, 1st September 2025 (Review of London Butoh Dance Company in ‘Of Mirrors and Shadows’, Chisendale Dance Space, August 2025):
‘Dense with symbolism and mythic resonance, Of Mirrors and Shadows immerses audiences in intense erotic and existential depths.’
