DARK CONTINENT: SEMIRAMIS / THE TETLEY 2018

Tai Shani’s Dark Continent is a series of texts interpreted into performance, film and installation, as well as a commissioned soundtrack. The project is an expanded adaptation of Christine de Pizan’s 1405 protofeminist text The Book of the City of Ladies, in which dialogues with three celestial females, ‘Reason’, ‘Rectitude’ and ‘Justice’, build a metaphorical protected city for women, using examples of important contributions women have made to Western civilisation and arguments that prove their intellectual and moral equality with men.

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Jointly commissioned by Glasgow International, The Tetley, and Nottingham Contemporary, DC: Semiramis brings together the full roster of these 12 characters, to create an epic tableaux vivant. At Glasgow International and Nottingham Contemporary the striking sculptural set was activated over a number of days with performances, each focusing on a different character from the series. At The Tetley, the work took the form of installations comprising an immersive set alongside a complete archive of the Dark Continent project, including video documentation of all twelve performances, texts, posters and a radio play.