{"id":54696,"date":"2020-08-31T09:28:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T15:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=54696"},"modified":"2020-09-07T09:33:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T15:33:28","slug":"shm00fi3zz-virtual-birthing-a-queer-orwellian-spacescape-in-the-age-of-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/shm00fi3zz-virtual-birthing-a-queer-orwellian-spacescape-in-the-age-of-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Shm00fi3zZ Virtual Birthing: A Queer Orwellian Spacescape in the Age of COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s both difficult and amusing to consider where to begin after witnessing the Shm00fie3zz Birthing.<\/h4>\n

The basic, \u201cwhat does it mean?\u201d expresses a genuine desire, but feels almost disingenuous when examining the series, captivatingly conceived of and performed by Salt Lake City artists Natalie Allsup-Edwards, Molly Mostert, and Emmett Wilson. The Shm00fi3zZ Birthing, hosted on possibly the most garishly dystopian of all platforms, Instagram Live, mounts the ritual births of the Shm00fi3zZ, adorable beanie baby-like space aliens, who are immediately auctioned off for adoption by the Inter-Dimensional & Galactic Adoption Foundation, Inc. (IDGAF). The piece is a continuation of the long-term performance art series typically conducted live but modified for COVID-19 safety.\u00a0 Both delightful and sinister, watching the Shm00fi3zZ live on Instagram is akin to watching the Teletubbies read Orwell.<\/h4>\n
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screenshot by Max Barnewitz<\/p><\/div>\n

Adult Shm00fi3zZ are near impossible to ignore. The large harlequin space cyclopses, embodied by Mostert and Wilson, dance with exaggerated and guileless movement, emitting high pitched squeaks and buzzes, presumably with unseen kazoos. While the Shm00fi3zZ, like walking Lisa Frank notebooks, are so aggressively cute that they express some sort of uncanny horror, Wwanda Star, the Adoption Agent for the mysterious and\/or nefarious IDGAF, judiciously played by Allsup-Edwards, is just as engrossing. With stilted optimism, Allsup-Edwards grimaces from behind Martian green face paint while narrating the scientific observations about the Shm00fi3zZ, whose offspring she collects, tags, and auctions off.<\/h4>\n

The queer performance piece is unsurprisingly resistant to moralization. Indeed, in the spirit of both strict postmodernism and absurdist millennial humor, applying meaning is probably what audiences should avoid. However, for the purposes of entertaining ideas, it is worth postulating that the Shm00fi3zZ could be 1) a dark metaphor for animal rights, 2) a biting critique of the mistreatment of immigrant families by the United States government, 3) a reminder of the inevitable commodification of the body in a capitalist society, 4) a commentary on the pitfalls and horrors of the art making process.<\/h4>\n

Over the trills and toots of the Shm00fi3zZ, Wwanda made the eerie assertions that \u201cwhen they\u2019re not birthing, they\u2019re working\u201d and \u201cit is so difficult to give away the things you create.\u201d Over the course of the performance, her growing obsession with \u201cproductivity\u201d belied one of the central themes of the Shm00fi3zZ piece: greed. Ultimately, while Wwanda is willing to go to great lengths to explain away the Shm00fi3zZ objectification \u2013 they are \u201cill equipped to care for babies\u201d \u2013 audiences must choose where they stand. Do we believe Wwanda is doing what\u2019s right for the adorable baby Shm00fi3zZ? Or do we support the adult Shm00fi3zZ in their struggle to keep their innumerable offspring? Much like said babies and the swarmy, grotesque bodies of the adults, questions are plentiful, comical, and disturbing.<\/h4>\n
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Screenshot by Max Barnewitz<\/p><\/div>\n

The Shm00fi3zZ Birthing delivered (if you\u2019ll pardon the pun) surprising twists and turns, plus many humorous Easter eggs, to which Allsup-Edwards dutifully pointed the viewers. Past Shm00fi3zz shows have embraced a need to stay in-character that rivals that of the Muppets. As a result, audiences are immediately drawn into the narrative. Not to be inhibited by social distance, the trio encouraged audiences to interact with the Shm00fi3zZ: viewers could dance at home (to promote the birthing process!), ask questions of Wwanda via the chat feature, and even order the baby Shm00fi3zz via eBay. As bizarre and fascinating as the Shm00fi3zZ Virtual Birthing may be, the trio of artists produced an outrageously complete, provocative, and well-constructed show that let audiences\u2019 minds and bodies go wild.<\/h4>\n

This review is published in collaboration with loveDANCEmore.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s both difficult and amusing to consider where to begin after witnessing the Shm00fie3zz Birthing. The basic, \u201cwhat does it mean?\u201d expresses a genuine desire, but feels almost disingenuous when examining the series, captivatingly conceived of and performed by Salt Lake City artists Natalie Allsup-Edwards, Molly Mostert, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1678,"featured_media":54701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.32.17-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 14:23:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54702,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54696\/revisions\/54702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}