Gabrielle Goliath

“I appreciate your note on the centrality of bodily presence and situated knowledge, which is key to the political, poetic, affective and conceptual impetus of the work, as it calls us into a different, more relational aesthetic encounter. It is, however, important to recall that not all “bodies” are equal, or equally “believable”, and do not enter into political representation on commensurate terms. An (anti-black/brown/poor/femme) index of differentially valued life continues to sustain an inequitable regime of representation, one in which white heteronormativity reads (and reads well) whilst the “affectable others” (to cite Denise Ferreira da Silva) do not.”

Art Frame Interview read

____

The copyright for any material published on this website is reserved. Any duplication or use of objects such as images, videos, sound files and texts is not permitted without the written agreement of Studio Goliath contact

THIS SONG IS FOR …
Gabriel Xavier

Something from Nothing (by Foo Fighters)
Performed by Desire Marea & Nonku Phiri

“It hurt, that is what I can say about what happened, it hurt emotionally and physically. It wasn’t something I understood at the time, nor did I understand it for a long time.

It was about 8 years ago, I was only 10. At that age, there are many things you don’t understand, you are still sheltered, secluded; a time for video games, cartoons and games. At that age you don’t really understand the weight behind things, innocence is still everything.

With an event of this significance, somehow you still think it is alright, and that it will all work out. Particularly when it is with someone you know, in your home, with your parents in the living room. Someone you trust, somewhere safe and protected by your parents.

I only understood the seriousness of all this when I was 15. Before that, at 13, we had learned about such things in a sex education class. But it was only when the teacher defined the word rape, that I felt as if I had been hit in the face. I can say that ‘everything went sort of dark’, and that is when the burden of it all really got to me. I was screaming inside, I ran to the bathroom and stayed there for an hour recalling what had happened.

I carried on denying it for a few years, pretending it hadn’t happened. I had never told anyone up until two years ago. There was a time when I doubted my own sanity, that it was all a figment of my imagination. That I was telling myself a lie.

But it truly happened.

It started with an invitation, for him to come and sleep over at my house, I was 10, he 15/16, what started out as a bit of fun, ended up being the trauma of my life.

The most difficult part was to face it, and the telling of it is incredibly difficult. I told my father: he threw in my face that it was a lie. I faced that relative: He said that it had never happened. As far as they were concerned, I didn’t know what I was talking about.

It is an emotional pain, much worse than physical pain, something you don’t know how to tell, something you try not to think about - you can’t bring yourself to talk about it.

What I can say is this: make yourself heard, face yourself, you know what happened and what goes on happening in the world, sadly.”