Romance of Many Dimensions
Bamboo Basket
22.8x31.4 in. (58x80 cm)
55x23.6 in. (140x 60 cm)
23.6x 18.9 in. (100x 48 cm)
2019

Act II: Gameness
Mixed Media on Canvas
95x118 in. (241x300 cm)
37x43.3 in. (94x110 cm)
2020

Cocks do not fight for their household gods, for the monuments of their ancestors, for glory, for liberty or for the safety of their children, but only because one will not give way to the other.
- Themistocles

Cockfighting is a “blood” game deeply embedded within various belief systems and religious worship and is one of the oldest spectator sports. A cockfight entails two birds meeting in combat and fighting until one dies or is critically injured; the surviving bird wins. Fighting cocks are specifically bred for their aggressiveness and ability to maintain an attack despite severe injury, dehydration, exhaustion, or broken bones. As a result, gamecocks are modified to play a game that benefits the overseeing spectators (gamblers) who profit from the winners and incur debts from the losers. Romance of Many Dimensions employs cockfighting as a metaphor to explore the politics of theatre, performance, and games in contemporary society. By displacing these questions onto the arena of cockfighting, ideas about gameness (being trained to fight beyond pain), masculinity, control, accumulation and violence can be addressed indirectly. The series questions how situations in everyday life—such as how we act, speak and relate to one another—can be staged and performed. By resorting to the violence of cockfighting and its associated gambling (and profits for the animals’ owners) the work interrogates the rules that govern such a staging, prompting a consideration of the rituals of performance and spectatorship more broadly.

Photography:
Kyle Berger - Jean Micheal Seminaro - Alison Postma