Ariadne Randall (feat. McKenzie Wark)
Reverse Cowgirl II: Ride To The Top
What makes a woman a woman? This question is asked by three women of different generations in Reverse Cowgirl II: Ride To The Top. Through dance and music, Ariadne Randall, McKenzie Wark and Nis Brender negotiate social prejudice and female norms of beauty – only to rave on against them.
Reverse Cowgirl II: Ride To The Top presents three women from three generations: New York author/theorist McKenzie Wark joins on video, while Ariadne Randall and Nis Brender are live on stage. Ariadne Randall has a musical and artistic background, Nis Brender is a trained dancer and choreographer. Ariadne Randall’s practice is rooted in a fusion of influences of Zen kōans, low theory, medieval and post-war composition, blending technology and poetry. The performance has autobiographical features: Dancing was prohibited in the Christian American community where she grew up as the child of a traveling apocalyptic evangelist and a Gospel singer. Now she dances with another woman for the first time: is she her double, her sister, her competitor, her friend, her lover? In the second part, the women put on a rave dance against social prejudice and female norms of beauty, exploring the utopia of the dancefloor. They question what makes a woman a woman and deconstruct the vulnerability of beauty. McKenzie Wark, who wrote a new text specifically for the piece, will be part of the performance via video.
Ariadne Randall is an American artist, composer and writer based in Vienna. Her work practices worldbuilding through transmedia narrative. Through strategies of material depth and formal juxtaposition, she creates spaces for imagination in sound, language and image. She holds degrees in classical composition and contemporary art from UCLA and Bard MFA. Her work has been heard widely, from Lincoln Center and a recent song cycle for the Volksoper Wien to countless basements. Her Reverse Cowgirl Quartet rides her gender transition towards larger questions of identity and becoming. Her debut record as a transgender woman was released to critical acclaim in 2024 on Oxtail Recordings. She is represented by Galerie Peter Gaugy (Brussels/Vienna).
Nis Fee Brender is a dancer, performer and teacher. Raised in the Circo Soluna theatre circus, she started appearing in circus shows at the age of two and learned the crafts of aerial acrobatics, trapeze, vaulting, unicycling, tightrope and acting. She later studied at Varium Espai de Moviment, Barcelona, New Education for Contemporary Dance, Härnösand, and SEAD, Salzburg, where she graduated in 2024. Nis Fee Brender has worked with Romeo Castellucci, Olivier Dubois, Alice Rohrwacher, Rhizomatic Circus Collective and Amanda Piña, among others.
McKenzie Wark is the author, among other things, of Reverse Cowgirl (Semiotexte), Raving (Duke) and Love and Money, Sex and Death (Verso). She is best known for a series of books of twenty-first century critical theory, including A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory and Capital Is Dead. She has also written works that contribute to an alternate history of Marxism, including Leaving The Twentieth Century and Molecular Red. Her survey books on contemporary theory and problems in collaborative knowledge production are General Intellects and Sensoria. She also writes in an autotheoretical style in books such as Dispositions and Philosophy for Spiders. She is a professor of media and cultural studies at a university in New York.
Theodosia Roussos is a composer, soprano and oboist. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, WildUP, Long Beach Opera, and as a soloist in the 2017 European Cultural Capital. Her film scores can be heard on Netflix, HBO, Amazon, and Apple TV, and she has recorded vocals/oboe for film scores by Emile Mosseri including for Miranda July’s Kajillionaire. Theodosia Roussos has worked with John Luther Adams, Butch Morris, George Lewis and Bang on a Can, and has played oboe for stars such as Ariana Grande, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Weird Al.
Credits
Artistic direction Ariadne Randall Performance & dance Ariadne Randall, Nis Brender Text McKenzie Wark, Ariadne Randall Video Ariadne Randall, McKenzie Wark, Leo Kuraitė Composition Ariadne Randall, Theodosia Roussos Costume design & additional concept Nyx Ferrand Dressmaker Kareem Aladhami Lighting design Leo Kuraitė Stage design Ariadne Randall, Leo Kuraitė Outside eyes Luca Bonamore, Lau Lukkarila Ceramics Jacob Bartmann Audiovisual Recording for McKenzie Wark Isobel Ward / Dirty Tailor Gallery representation for Ariadne Randall Peter Gaugy (Brussels/Vienna) Production management Theo Emil Krausz, Sophie Menzinger, Elena Müller Administration Takelage
A co-production of Celestial Excursions – Kulturverein für Transmediale Kunst and imagetanz 2025 / brut Wien
With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs (MA 7), Bears in the Park, AIL – Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, Art x Science School for Transformation (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz / dieAngewandte), Experimental Game Cultures (dieAngewandte) and SKE-Austro Mechana
Dates & Tickets
studio brut
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
not accessible
Info
The show on Wed, 09 April will be followed by an artist talk, Moderation: Laura Amann.
Content Notes
The performance uses flashing light.
Recommended from the age of 16. The performance addresses the life and sexuality of transgender people as well as existing threats to their safety.
Event recommendations
Imani Rameses
First Person Plural
McKenzie Wark
Reverse Cowgirl
brut all over Vienna
brut nordwest
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
accessible
studio brut
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
not accessible
Bears in the Park Art Place
not accessible
Eyzinggasse 12, 1110 Vienna
U-Bahn: U3 (Gasometer) Bus: 72A (Gasometer), 76A, 76B (Simoningplatz)
not accessible