Between Tin Men

An ongoing multidisciplinary performance project, Between Tin Men reanimates L. Frank Baum’s world of Oz through the imagination and erotics of fan fiction, borrowing minor characters and scenarios from the children’s series and rendering them through explorations of radical feminism, queer utopias, and the ubiquity of consumer desire. Modular in nature, the piece manifests variously through installation, video, and a series of multimedia performances.

The narrative focuses on Nimmie Amee, an aging Munchkin girl with a Tin Man fetish. She fell in love with not one, but two Tin Men, and even after both leave her she “just can’t go back to flesh.” Using a mock epic structure, her journey to woo the Tin Men is constantly disrupted by militant woman Ozians. These characters are also based upon historical figures from the radical feminist movement--such as Valerie Solanas and Shulamith Firestone—so that the narrative forges thematic connections between the fantastic elements of Oz and the revolutionary consciousness of late twentieth century liberation movements. In doing so, it delves into notions of “failure” that permeate our contemporary perspective on past attempts at social revolution, and explores the slippage that occurs between the utopian potential of feminism and its vulnerability to commercial enterprise.

Highlights from Part I, performed at Roulette on November 7, 2017

Excerpt from Part II, performed at Bard College on June 15, 2016

Excerpt from one-channel video version of BTM, Part I. (Work-in progress)

Gifts and Souvenirs

                    Gifts and Souvenirs was installed at Lubov in Tribeca from July 2 to August 13, 2017.

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