Mikey McParlane: Foolish Heart of the Golden Boy

The Golden Boy is prone. He is on his knees with his spine bent backwards. An alert, also gold leafed, blonde Adonis suspends him by the throat. He is beauty in a restful pose. As an object he can reach perfection.

The boy is limp, bells and ribbons on his wrists, on his ankles and at his hips. Adonis takes a honey-like substance into his mouth and dribbles it onto The Golden Boy’s chest.

And here, before death, the Golden Boy sings.

First, he sings to God. He sings for pity. Then God, a cruel and greedy God, sings back. “Come child of the dirt, bend to serve me…and I will wear your entrails like jewels on my marble fingers.” The Adonis flexes behind The Golden Boy, but does not touch him. They are posing in synchronicity, the boy leading.

The Golden Boy sings facing the crowd. Coy, baby-like, he accepts fingers into his mouth—first his own, then the fingers of the Adonis creature. He accepts fingers all over his body. He is singing again, this time with distortion.

The music changes. The Golden Boy returns to his original prone position, and now the Adonis creature dresses him for death. He coats him with oil from a large clear vessel. The oil runs down The Golden Boy’s chest in waves, pooling on the floor. Then the Adonis creature coats The Golden Boy with dirty water full of worms. The dirty water runs down The Golden Boy’s chest in rivulets, streaking his face. The worms hang on to his limbs and slip onto the floor.

They tousle. The Golden Boy’s legs are in the air, his little lamb ankles wrapped around the shoulder of the Adonis creature. His mouth is held open, and he gasps and struggles for a moment, then suffocates.

The two remain entwined, hovering over a pool of filth, like Madonna and Child at the altar of excess.

RP14 performance photos by Arjuna Capulong.
Mothergirl (Katy Albert and Sophia Hamilton) is a Chicago based performance duo whose work has taken the form of installation, durational event, and guided audience interaction. Mothergirl’s characters, and the worlds they inhabit, exhibit a strategically refracted or misrepresented view of current political and philosophical discourse, creating a space where viewers are challenged to think critically about their own relationships with feminism, consumerism, and representational visuality. They have performed at Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival (2013), MCA Chicago, Rough Trade II Artist Exchange, Out of Site, and Roxaboxen. They were 2012 ACRE Residents and 2013 Chicago Artists Coalition HATCH Residents.