In 2022, at a residency looking at the work of DH Lawrence around sexuality and land, I created sculptural costume works called “butt plug tails.” These appendages, which encircle and extend the body, engage with themes of kink, gender presentation, and sexuality beyond the human form. I performed with them through landscapes such as Derbyshire, the Peak District, Lake District, and the Scottish Highlands, documenting my movements through video and using automatic writing as a tool for processing. Overlaying the videos with audio recordings of my writing, I created a feedback loop that articulates and interrogates these embodied experiences.

Restaging this work later in club settings, divorced from the non-human agent of the land and shaped in relation to the desire of the audience and the club’s fiscal framework, the feedback loop shifted, transforming the work again. The dissatisfaction of performing this work in these nightlife contexts raised some key questions. What clarity can be reached through performing erotic acts without having to consider anyone else’s desire? How can this allow you to feel truly situated in a place? How can you access sites where you can be free of the pervy eyes of god? Where do these urges come from, and where are they going?