The B Party
Vik’s Inner Barbie…
The B Party began as a solo performance that Vik created for a performance creation class that I taught in the winter term of 2017. A theme explored in this course was alienation in a world of post-truth; the focus of the solo performance assignment was to explore the idea of an ‘echo chamber’. For the purposes of this assignment, the echo chamber was defined metaphorically as a space in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a defined system of thinking and being. From this idea, Vik felt compelled to explore the significant influence that Barbie has had on her life. The Mattel Corporation provided the information, ideas, and beliefs and this ‘echo chamber’ was irresistible to a very young Vik Kovac, living in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where Barbie’s pink, frilly, and fully accessorized lifestyle no doubt offered a way of thinking and being a woman that was exotic and deeply alluring.
I was thrilled with Vik’s interpretation of the assignment, and I have endeavored to support the development of this work through a performance at the Steel Rails Festival in June 2017, followed by a performance in September 2017, in Studio 180, at the University of Waterloo, and finally to the performance you will experience tonight. Since its first incarnation, ‘the look’ of the B Party has changed somewhat: the work gained a second performer, and, most recently, Vik became pregnant. Brooke Barnes created the second role in 2017, and for this performance, Nada Abusaleh has developed it further. Vik’s pregnancy at first posed a couple of challenges — given a rigorous rehearsal schedule and the new semiotics of a pregnant protagonist. But Vik was determined that the party must go on, and we soon discovered that her obvious pregnancy enriches and deepens many of the questions we want this performance to pose about women in relation to the ideology of Barbie.
The text has been developed to reflect more of what I would call an auto-ethnographic style. Briefly, auto-ethnography in performance is a way of discovering one’s voice in relation to a particular cultural and political context. It is a way of exploring the reflections and refractions of the self in contexts that transform the authorial ‘I’ to an existential ‘we’. And, thus, auto-ethnography is a way of examining how our multiple layers of experience connect us all. Auto-ethnography recognizes that knowledge is subjective and deeply connected to the knower, but it also possesses a sort of bifurcated gaze; that is a way of looking inward at the self, while maintaining an outward gaze and awareness of the larger context of cultural experience where self-defining experiences occur.
Vik has warmly welcomed me into her Barbie world; it’s a party, and I’ve enjoyed doing what I can to help her welcome all of you to this party tonight.
Andy Houston - Artistic Conspirator
