Sweat is undoubtedly the most common bodily fluid that appears in performance work. However, when sweat becomes a prominent material within the piece, it begins to challenge stereotypical ideas of femininity, repositioning femininity as power, strength, and durability. This is a clear contrast between traditional expectations of women: delicate, fragile, and soft. One work which explore the limits and toughness of the female body is Okwui Okpokwasili’s Bronx Gothic.



Bronx Gothic, 2017
Bronx Gothic is a performance work including elements of both theater and dance. The first 30 minutes are comprised of Okpokwasili shaking and shuddering, which the artist refers to as “break body”. Over this period of time, sweat begins beading and running down the artist’s body until she is soaked. The next section of the work involves a reading of “notes passed between two barely pubescent girls” (Guardian) in order to reference the sexualization of young girls, assaults, and particularly the experience of black girls who are seen not as innocent children, but as sexual objects. As Okpokwasili pushes her own body to its physical limits and strains herself, the audience begins to feel a sense that they are also shaking. While the work clearly exhibits the body’s strength and resilience, the point is not to show that women are strong. Instead, the work asks why girls, particularly young black girls, should have to be “strong”. The underlying cultural narrative, which perpetuates ideas of victim blaming and girls as sexual objects, needs to change. In this work, sweat is a symbol of the emotional labor that girls and women are forced to endure, and questions why they should have to go through these tribulations.