The Facts of Life, 2016, live performance
Material: The living artist, two other women, 2 vats of hibiscus tea,
The Facts of Life is a euphemism for the information about sexual function and practices particularly when it is dispelled to someone younger. It also is a idiom for the unpleasant truths of life.
The dual meaning of this turn of phrase resonates with me as I consider ideas of sexual assault and violence. Though sexual violence and assault does not discriminate, it is decidedly a woman’s issues and on that is given very little voice. Over 1 in 3 women experience sexual assault in Nigeria. This is an epidemic, but you wouldn’t know. It is not spoken of.
Why? The transmission of knowledge for woman to woman has held a place of contention and unease. Any mass gathering of women, centuries past, was read immediately as a coven. Interestingly enough, it is this notion of witchy that has been used to subjugate and debase, and castigate women to silence. The enchantress and seductress all have underpinnings of magical influence that forced a hesitant man to go astray. The onus is left on women to prove their faultless. In a society which holds women accountable both for their own actions and the actions acted upon them, it is difficult to circumvent mentally and societally the dangers that lay in simplify telling the truth. In a society where the appearance of chastity and is high moral currency and to be chaste is read both as the withholding from sex and warding off rape and assault- women are given very little incentive to tell their stories. The implications are tragic for the next set of women to come. How do women pass information to one another. How do we warn each other of the dangers that lie in front of us in a society as we grow and move.
Using Zobo, a bitter red herbal drink brew with nutrient-rich hibiscus flower, as a metaphor/ entryway into the discourse surrounding the transmission of knowledge from woman to woman. The Facts of Life address sexuality, hardship, assault, and struggles in womanhood. Three blinded women navigate debris laden grounds in order to pass zobo from one another from depleting sources.