An operatic video installation for an army of six girls and one war mistress.

We have been shown that a new order is paramount. These girls may just help take us there.

We Will Slam You With Our Wings is a seven screen video and sound installation. Each hanging screen depicts a 19th century colonial imperialistic portrait but with one noticeable difference. Instead of the lavish depiction of white powerful men, a young girl between the age of 8 to 16 stands in her own regalia and commands her own stance of power. Each girl each from a different continent, stands in her own room and in her own frame. Rather than being isolated from each other however, these young girls combined are the leaders, the army, the chorus, the pack, the collective, and the future voice

We Will Slam You With Our Wings is created by and features Joanna Dudley, the performer known for her ground-breaking collaborations with William Kentridge. Joanna Dudley is the chieftain and mentor encouraging the girls to take autonomy over their own voices and to create the world afresh.

We Will Slam You With Our Wings draws on another quintessential 19th century form and turns it on its head- the dramatic soprano’s death aria in opera.

Each girl carefully recreates an operatic death scene representing the squirming heights of patriarchal fantasy. However, in their versions, the tragic fates of Dido, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Salome, Brünnhilde and Suor Angelica take a decided turn for the better. Rather than being led to their deaths as we have grown to expect, this female army leads you to watch them loudly, playfully, proudly and unnervingly conquer.

Patriotic speeches from the world’s male dictators and leaders proclaiming the declaration of war are not left unscathed. They are rewritten, re-screamed and re-performed in an entirely different way again, and for very different purposes and outcomes. Each screen runs simultaneously, creating not only a highly choreographed choir but also a polyphonic operatic sound score.

Powerful in their collective consciousness, the girls spawn an altogether different kind of social order, based on their own rules and their own wishes. The hunted becomes the hunter, the tamed controls,and the dying beauty takes her own revenge.

Also appearing as part of City Lights.

Image: Dudley/Meyburgh
Artist: Ruth Alice McIlleron, Tabatha Howard, Mpho Takane

Whilst it is not mandatory to wear masks to enter We Will Slam You With Our Wings we encourage patrons to protect themselves by wearing a mask.