I N S T A L L A T I O N & P E R F O R M A N C E
B O D I E S O F W O R K
2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 7
P O S T S H I F T S E S S I O N S
2 0 1 6
I N B E D W I T H A R T I S T S R E S I D E N C Y
2 0 1 7
E A T C A K E
2 0 1 9
L A T O I L E T T E
2 0 1 9
T O G E T H E R A P A R T
Together Apart
2020
Film 41min
Nico is locked down with a group of artists isolating
together at an artist residency. Unable to perform
her original project as no one is allowed on or off the
premises, she has to come up with another in order
to legitimise her presence at the residency and her
sex work practice as ‘art’. The liminal conditions of a
Level Five lockdown seem to create a place beyond
time, bringing new opportunities and problematics to
to the performance of intimacy, which further blur the
uneasy boundaries between fact and fiction…
The work features the talents of a largely queer
collective with backgrounds in film, theatre, fine art,
performance, activism and documentary. Produced
and written by Nico Athene and Francis Chouler.
Directed by Nico Athene and Francis Chouler in
collaboration with Loren Loubser, Kiroshan Naidoo,
Gabe Gabriel, and Kathleen Stephens. Additional
performances by Buhle Ngama, Amy Wilson, and Sihle
Shona. Additional camera by Francois Knoetze. Based
on the original works in ‘relational aesthetics’ by Nico
Athene. Produced by the National Arts Fesitval
South Africa
M O N E Y M A K E S M E C U M
Money Makes Me Cum
2017
Film 10:23min
A spoof pornography. Or maybe just pornography. Or maybe just a
performance by an artist. The muse demanding payment for her
work across the ages. It pulls off the strip club antidote deflected
nightly. The John asks ‘so what really makes you cum’ - always
trying to get behind the performance, to steal labour not charged
for, to find the real but has she ever really existed? ‘Money’ the
inevitable answer that rings in my head, although I might say:
‘being paid for my time so I can relax with you’, or ‘ a threesome
with Britney’ if I’m trying to help a friend score. Or even ‘You baby’
if I can see his pockets are loose and the alcohol is pumping.
She may as well be Manet’s model, though of course he got all
the credit.
Produced and directed by Nico Athene
Performed by: Katja Toenails
Cinematography: Sara de Gouveia
Original music by Phil Kramer.
S H O W M E L O V E
Show Me Love
2015
Film 5:53min
Show Me Love is a hort film in the form of a conceptual
trailer for a film-never-made. Initially framed as a call
to arms to explore non-heteronormative narratives of
love and sex on film it follows a group of young adults
in Cape Town as they undergo casting interviews and
discussions on what that would necessarily entail.
What does a non-binary, non-essentialised view on
sex and the body look like? When does it become
real life? As the camera flips between the surrealism
of pornographic film and mundanity of their life the
audience is left wondering whether they are watching
a documentary or the product of their production.
