“I have tried to find language for histories that are present with us, that I didn’t have language for, that were unarticulated to me; that are difficult to take apart, to express and to take account for,” says musician, performance artist and educator Geo Wyeth. “To do that in a way that doesn’t just retool the wound, that’s the tricky part.” Speaking to AQNB editor Steph Kretowicz for AQNB’s latest Artist Statement podcast from their home in Rotterdam, the New York-born artist talks about their interdisciplinary work, which explores colonial and racial histories through embodied storytelling.
Wyeth is co-founder of queer social space Tender Center, and has worked with the likes of Tourmaline, Jen Rosenblit, Josefin Arnell and Navild Acosta, among others. They most recently collaborated with cult icon Vava Dudu, translating the Parisian fashion designer, musician and painter’s poetry from French to English and performing a joint companion piece organised by Buenos Tiempos, Intl’s Alberto García del Castillo at BOZAR Brussels in June. Wyeth’s presentations—that also include video and ‘narrative sculpture’—are equal parts funny and playful; tender and discomfiting, exploring the body’s relationship to the world in a special synthesis of humour and grief.
‘Tracing Pain’ is the latest in our Artist Statement podcast series, with past episodes, featuring Colin Self, Legacy Russell, Katja Novitskova and more. The full episode is accessible to our subscribers right now on Patreon. Sign up now: www.patreon.com/aqnb.**
