BE
BE is dear to my heart as a performer always on the quest to collaborate and form new ideas in performance and art. “Be” is me. “Be” is you. “Be” is us. People coming together to witness “Be” become one, if only for the duration of my action, at the same time, place, and for the same purpose. As I channel the goddess Diana and all of my ancestors before me, I hope that you will not only see truth and honesty but that you will join me on the often invisible journey of my voice, spirit, and body.
— TEMPESTT FARRAR
BE was a collaborative installation and performance, it was a cathartic retelling of the story of Diana, the goddess of the hunt. It was PART II of a performance I created in January 2015, Hey Mama, Diana, Where you at?, a reaction to the way women are portrayed in Western mythology. My work attacks any notion that women should be subordinated through constructing and then deconstructing different myths. I looked to Diana, Zeus’ daughter for inspiration. Diana, the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and birthing is associated with animals, the forest, and has the power to talk to and control them. She is also the vengeful protector of wronged women, serving justice with an arrow.
BE was also born from the bleak racial climate in America today. At the time of the performance, 2016, we still lived in a country that continues to systematically oppress people because of the color of their skin. In this strange time, during the rise of Trump and his racist sexist rhetoric, it feels ever more urgent to conjure Diana. Tempestt Farrar is Diana. Tempestt is an actress from North Carolina who was pursuing her MFA at the University of Iowa in Theater Performance. Working collaboratively to decolonize the female body Farrar and Wiren developed BE. Bartlett the installation artist, Tempestt the performing artist; they collaborated to bring those two worlds together based on their experiences as women in a society that treats them radically differently because of their gender and the color of their skin. Tempestt, a Black woman and Heidi, White.
Through performance and the body, a metaphor for the larger sociopolitical body, they hope the audience recognizes themselves.
“My performance was based on the journey of a black woman. Showing the happiness, rhythm, sounds and physical movements of the black culture, also including different events from my personal journey. This piece was created with whatever inspired me in the moment. I responded to whatever stimulated me in order to tell the story of Black Diana.” – Tempestt Farrar
Photos courtesy of Bruce James Bayles.