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Societal binaries have shaped our collective worldview in a powerful way. The gender binary holds within it another binary of “preferred” vs “assigned,” but even biological sex is more fluid than the general public’s understanding of it. What if we understood gender as something that is not fixed, but is instead constantly being created through our interactions with others? And what if we applied this idea of gender to other binaries in life? What would happen if we broke down the binary between binary and fluid but didn’t let go of the extremes on the spectrums? Interdisciplinary artist, Art Kopischke, uses gender theory to interrogate other binary dinosaurs in our society, taking examples from purity culture, morality tales, two party systems, and reality TV competitions.

Art Kopischke is a multi-media theater artist whose interdisciplinary performance work has been presented at Interrobang, Abrons Arts Center, HotBed Gallery, I Don’t Wanna See That, Anchoress Syndicate, FEAST, ApartmentPARTY, NOTHEME Festival, and Am I Write Ladies. A graduate of Bard College and Brooklyn College, they have been a guest lecturer at New York University, United Nations International School, University of Wisconsin Green Bay, and they have been published in LinoKino, Onstage Blog, PUNCH, Eugene, and Bard Papers. Their play, You Don’t Deserve To Die, will have a workshop with UWGB at World Premiere Wisconsin this March.