Home Science | Performance

Born inside British Council’s SPARK residency, conducted in Nepal 2022, this show addresses the journey of women/femme-people through their life, especially adolescence. Home Science combines Noni Mouse and Osheen Siva's shared experiences, especially with their mothers and female caregivers in their lives. While these experiences may be shared by many in the South Asian community, this is their way to recreate, reclaim and process. Their objective is to challenge the assumptions and expectations set against the "daughters" in South Asian society, as well the notion of what a performance is. Home Science explores their take on performance, as women, and as artists. Women in South-Asian culture have a particular way of passing on generational conditioning to their children, notably ‘girls’. Trauma flows like a polluted river through every generation of female-identifying members of South Asians society as they present themselves to provide care/empathy, and prioritise others around them. Home Science, an art presentation by Noni-Mouse and Osheen Siva, is a discourse. Through an intimate performance, the artists take inspiration from various ‘brown’ cultures and their rituals, that involve preparing the ‘girl’ for the life that lies ahead of her. From teaching her to how to dress, to how to pleasure a man, the Home Science performance includes creation and manipulation of art, using dolls, paint, music and textile, symbolising the preparation of ‘female’ for the life ahead of her.