Hamish McIntosh - Book, Ladder

An incursion into queer temporality and gender in dance.

The first version of Hamish McIntosh's Book, Ladder was the choreographic outcome of his postgraduate year at the University of Auckland. Performed at the Gus Fisher Gallery in 2018, this four-hour endurance solo explored queerness, futurity, and zen with reference to the Japanese dance form butoh. Based on McIntosh's experience of institutional homophobia while training as a dancer, this work was inspired by a former teacher's suggestion that he "be a woman in his own time." Using a copy of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho as a symbol for the fantastical vanity of masculinity, in this work McIntosh ritualistically placed a book between his thighs before climbing a step ladder in high heels. Emulating the infamous chicken scene of Hijikata Tatsumi's Kinjiki (1959), McIntosh strangled the book with his legs before dropping it from a height—cyclically repeating this gesture while moving counter-clockwise through the gallery in an effort to feel the passage of time.

Season: June 2018, Gus Fisher Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland | Performer: Hamish McIntosh