No Queer Bodies--a public scrubbing, performance in Fes, Morocco, performance photos and sound clip, 2014.
The scrubbing took place in a local female hammam (public bathhouse) in the Medina of Fes. The English word queer was tagged with henna on my knuckles, arms, back, broadly across my chest, neck, feet and legs. After drying, my body was publicly scrubbed by an attendant—an elderly Moroccan woman—with a rough brush, traditional black soap and rinsed with buckets of hot water.
Blinded by steam, bodies became just breasts and buttocks, toes and teeth; each naked body forfeited her identity by undressing and entering. The transformation of my marked queer body—as it was awkwardly flipped on the slippery tile floor—was an ephemeral and seemingly humorous spectacle. The vigorous scrubbing and consequent searing sensation irritated and further embedded the henna into my skin. Body parts tagged queer became red and triumphant upon the spectacle’s end.
But I was no body.
Documentation photograph several weeks post performance. Photo/Elizabeth Steen