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Following “cloakroom” at club [construction] ! at DAS/Digital Art Studios, CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! stems from an ongoing research-project into queer club-culture. Originating from a fascination with the physical proximity between avant-garde queer club-communities with heterosexual working-class sports clubs in industrial Western-European port cities, the show explores the unexpected cultural phenomena that emerges when these seemingly opposing worlds collide.
Inspired by a queered interpretation of Jean-Pierre Faye’s ‘Horseshoe Theory’, CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! blurs the props, codes and practiced pageantry of hyper-masculinity, sports-spectatorship and fan-culture, with the camp extravagance of queer masculinity, diva-worship and the queer club-space. Faye’s theory suggests that extreme opposites in a linear continuum - such as hyper-male heterosexuality and flamboyant queer masculinity - do not polarise but curve towards each other, revealing surprising parallels in their aesthetic theatricality and performance.
CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! utilises a combination of sculptural interjections and a series of experimental films. Strategically poised within Ulster Sports Club’s upstairs bar, the Committee Room, these investigate the theatricality of rehearsed masculinity and the trained rituals of sports-spectatorship in conjunction with the spectacle of diva-worship, realness and queer machismo in the shadow of internalised homophobia. CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! invites the audiences to grab a seat at the bar and witness how these opposing worlds twist, fold and fade into each other in unexpected ways.