IMAGES FROM PERFORMANCE PIECE TRANSBORDER, PRO ARTS, OAKLAND, 2018



INI TAT founded by
Jessica Fertonani Cooke and Guta Galli


WEBSITE

Transdisciplinary performance duo born in 2018
Based between San Francisco, CA and São Paulo, BR 

Born of fire, INI TAT is an interdisciplinary artist duo that chose a snake’s forked tongue as its core symbol.


This body-based feminist collective questions the intersections between language, race and culture while making critical commentaries on how the rise of the gig economy has impacted labor and the contemporary body regarding human relations.


They study how radical informality has produced a capitalism that is fuelled by brutal exploitation, especially in sexual and black markets. They combine conceptual thinking with rites of passage manifested through performance, sound, video and installation pieces.


pool of personal menstrual blood collected by duo over the years


Transborder
Pro Arts, Oakland, CA, 2018
Duration: 2 hours


Team
- Performers: INI TAT
- Photography: Vasudhaa Naranayan- Metal sculpture: Sun English JR.- Installers: Martin Mladenov and Chris Wood - PR and admin: Chris Wood


Description
Transborder explores visceral symbolism of colonialist and post-Industrial exploitation in the Americas. It alludes to slavery, labour and rituals present in the inherent systematic oppression of industrial societies.

The performance is situated around a metal structure supporting a bag containing 100kg of soil that straddles a pool of menstrual blood. Both performers, wearing flesh-toned body-suits, enter the space, one positions herself on top of the metal structure and reaches for the bag of soil and slowly tears a hole in the fabric. The second performer positions herself inside the menstrual blood pool, with a gold mining sieve as she sieves the soil that falls from the bag.

Over 2 hours the soil falls and is sifted into the pool. Upon draining the bag, the performers lay atop the pile and rest until they finally fall asleep, releasing their own control upon themselves and the viewers.