« S.W.E.A.T. » (Sex/uality. Work. Extraction. Art. Theatr/ics): with Justice aka Karyka #7

Justice aka Karyka is a Nigerian IT student living and working in Kumasi Ghana. When we met he was running a barber shop part time and I was looking for a fresh haircut. He is a drummer at his uncle’s church, singer and aspiring actor, which are just a few of his future dreams as he takes on many part time jobs. We spoke about how he hustles to get by as a Nigerian migrant to Ghana and what he dreams of in the future. Justice became a fast friend and an integral part of the performance we made together called S.W.E.A.T. in which he activated a dress I had sewn out of the plastic bags which hold drinking water. At the time he was playfully exploring a genderqueerness by taking an a pseudonym “Karyka”.

This interview will close out the short series conducted with people I met in and around Kumasi Ghana, when I was an artist in resident at perforcraze International Artist Residency (-pIAR) in 2021. The people who have been introduced through this series all have a unique relationship to work and to art and were willing to share their experiences with me. For this I am immensely grateful.

We all sweat as we provide care, as we labour, as we perform our work, as we fuck, as we survive and as we sacrifice one choice for the other. How exactly do we define our work and how does that work entangle and circumscribe our sexual identities, our racialized bodies, our creative lives and the ways in which we provide care? How do we perform both tasks and identities within the framework of that which we consider work? These conversations are a means to speak between intersectionalities by anchoring through our (always, already, and ever pervasive) sexualized and racialized bodies, our working bodies, our artistic bodies and our performative bodies. I hope that they contribute to dialogues which normalize sex work as work, and all work as deserving of respect, healthy conditions, and a living wage.

PerfocraZe International Artist Residency www.crazinistartist.com Gofundme Campaign for -p IAR: https://www.gofundme.com/f/xx48d3-save-piar?qid=cedd48679846198a99f2d784f362af81 HYENAZ Reading Group: https://www.hyenaz.com/art-and-extractivism-reading-group/

You can find out more https://www.alfabus.us/s-w-e-a-t/

Mad Kate (they/them) is an electronic producer, sound designer, performance artist and writer who began working the Berlin performance and club scene in 2004, expanding their unique identity-queering, genderfcking and sexpositive performative work throughout music, theatre and film. Their explorations of borders between/within bodies, audibility, consent, proximity, and touch as political practice have brought them to theaters, communes, technomansions, prisons, dungeons, squats and galleries around the world.

Track List

Mad Kate – My Fear of Pretending feat. Lori Baldwin Mad Kate – Karyka’s Song Mad Kate – SWEAT – LotusBeatz Keep Moving Remix featuring Karyka Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Kelsey Lu’s Transportation – Ever New Le Croque, atsou, Jamie Fallon Smith - Bird of Soul (Original Mix) Tirzah - Devotion (feat. Coby Sey) feat. Coby Sey_(Original Mix)