Review: “Farmhouse/Whorehouse: an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra starring Lili Taylor”

Suzanne Bocanegra speaks though Lili Taylor delivering a lecture on the dual perception of woman as a Mother and a Whore.

New York conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra often visited her grandparents’ farm in Texas as a kid. Across from it, you guessed it, was a brothel. And not just any brothel, but the infamous Chicken Ranch that inspired the 1978 Broadway musical, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and its 1982 film adaptation. Combining her childhood memories, latter life events, anthropological research and popular culture references, Bocanegra reflects on womanhood at large in Farmhouse/Whorehouse: an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra starring Lili Taylor.    

Suzanne Bocanegra and Lili Taylor in Farmhouse/Whorehouse. Photo by Richard Termine.

As announced in the title, the show stars the film and stage actress Lili Taylor (most recently seen on Broadway in Marvin’s Room). For the duration of one hour, Taylor stands in a square of light, flipping slides on the large screen above and delivering “the lecture”. Farmhouse/Whorehouse might be seen as a solo show, not of Taylor though, but of Bocanegra, who is also present on stage on the opposite corner from the actress. Bocanegra monotonically reads her notes into a microphone, bent above the desk lit with a single lamp. Taylor, who has an earplug (?), repeats what she hears with the dexterity of a seasoned news broadcaster or simultaneous interpreter, handling every word with great care.

The actress wears a black skirt over black pants, a style inspired by the mid 19th-century Oneida community. The lecture is seemingly organized by the principle of free association as Bocanegra mentions other utopian socio-agrarian projects, like the one of 18th century philosopher Charles Fourier, or hippy communes spread across the US in 1960s and 70s. Another cluster of topics concerns prostitution and is illustrated by paintings of French surrealists and photographs of the brothel, Chicken Ranch.

Whether speaking about women pioneers, paintings of peasants by Jean Francois Millet or prostitution in Paris in 19th century, Bocanegra ties her findings to her own experiences. And vice versa, the events in her own, life like interactions with her grandparents, being pregnant, or climbing up five flights of stairs loaded with groceries and kids, fuel the artist’s thoughts. It might be difficult to follow the non-linear narrative accompanied by slides pulled from all over the place. Among them: pregnant belly cakes found on the Internet, Monet paintings, and video fragments of popular movies. It also takes time to get used to the echoing speech of the writer and actress.

Farmhouse/Whorehouse is deeply personal yet not too sentimental and, being a lecture, teaches you a thing or two. Bocanegra humanizes the experiences of marginalized and heroic women alike. She uses the duality of woman as saint or whore to structure the presentation and show the inadequacy and limitations of these categories.

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Farmhouse/Whorehouse: an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra starring Lili Taylor played at BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Pl, on December 12-16, 2017. The running time is 1 hour with no intermission.

Farmhouse/Whorehouse  is by Suzanne Bocanegra. Directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Produced by Sandra Garner and Lingua Franca Arts. Lighting design by Eric Southern.  

The cast is Lili Taylor and Suzanne Bocanegra.