A mysterious white figure stands before a mirror. Sharp fangs cling around a poem, a horse like tail moves slowly as the performer drifts through the space. In To Own Your Joy, Natalija Gucheva recites a self written poem in an altered, harmonised voice accompanied by sound artist Benjamin Schoones. The words unfold as an invocation of desire, resistance, and liberation:

“As the oyster opens
Soft liquid oozes and drips on your legs
Coding different systems of pleasure.”

Inspired by Goblin Market (1862) by Christina Rossetti, a Victorian poem exploring temptation and sisterhood, Gucheva revisits its subtext of same sex desire as a point of departure for a deeply personal exploration of gender, sexuality, and freedom. The performance reimagines Rossetti’s text through a queer and contemporary lens, transforming repression into reclamation.

The garments, designed in collaboration with Alexis Gerlach and Aidan Abnet, weave together layers of identity. A tail, claws, and horns extend from the body, evoking a creature in constant transformation. These animalistic elements become emblems of code switching, mutation, and survival within queer existence, an embodiment of how society projects monstrosity onto difference. Yet within the performance, these symbols are reclaimed as sites of strength and defiance.

The piece culminates in an eruption of raw emotion and catharsis:

“To claw out of our monstrous bodies
Burn the cocoon and lick the ashes
Spit in the face of terror
As a final lullaby.”

Through movement, sound, and spoken word, To Own Your Joy subverts the conventions of the performance space, asserting the body as a site of agency, rage, and tenderness. What emerges is a declaration of self possession, a refusal to conform, as the artist’s voice pierces the room in a final cry of autonomy:

“I OWN MY OWN JOY.”