mothers hands as lovers hands by Elton Irvine

Artspace Aotearoa is pleased to present mothers hands as lovers hands by Elton Irvine, a performance artist based in Te Whanganui-A-Tara. Elton has recently completed his MFA at Massey University in Wellington. This event will have two short performances at 6.30pm and 7.30pm.

Elton is described as a painfully shy exhibitionist seeking hungry eyes of validation. Self-proclaimed as a ‘mummy’s boy with daddy issues’, Irvine explores the little moments we – as humans – try to disregard. Leakages and secretions reveal themselves as material investigations that link us to the physical and subjective relationship we have with our bodies.

“What was of my body, is it still me? Finger and toe nails, piss, and come, chopped onion stink of old sweat. Moving beyond the physical abject to the abject of emotion, of lust, of shame and of guilt shared. Of familial histories and inherited trauma. Of moments unsaid, that cannot be said. Where do “you” begin and where does “I” end? That smell, we all know, breathe me in. I am inside of you”

–Elton Irvine

On the 28th of January, 2022, Elton will perform two sessions of mothers hands as mothers hands. Each session is approximately five minutes in duration. This is the second public programme as part of Artspace Aotearoa’s New Artist Show: Cruel Optimism.

This autobiographical performance conjures the poetic, the uncomfortable, vulnerability, sexuality and memory. Performing with his mother, Elton revisits his early childhood encounters as a way of understanding the progress of familial attachment, desire, the bodily and the immune system. This performance does contain moments of unease, and places the viewer in a space of self-reflection and we ask that no documentation is taken as the performance contains nudity.

Please note this performance contains sensitive content, graphic sexual descriptions and full frontal male nudity. This performance is therefore not suitable for people under the age of 18.