HOT PURSUIT: THE FABLED CHASE
Hot Pursuit (The Fabled Chase) is a new body of work by THE POWERS (Jessica Mensch, Emily Pelstring & Katherine Kline) that draws inspiration from The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries created in the Netherlands between 1495 and 1500.
The Unicorn and Virgin symbolism in the tapestries has been read multiple ways: as Christian allegory, psychological archetype, as well as a myth that reiterates “sexual purity” as a virtue. Fascinated by the complexity and evolution of this mythology, The Powers rewrite their own version of this story, restoring the virgin and unicorn’s monstrous qualities, and allowing them to play out their own perverse desires. They do away with the Virgin as a symbol of purity and present both figures - the Unicorn and Virgin - as embodied, campy, horny, and trashy. The underlying ethos of their new narrative is that “non-innocence” is an ethical necessity, as well as an ecological reality.
To create Hot Pursuit (The Fabled Chase), The Powers collectively wrote, directed, shot, performed, and composed the soundtrack for the video and live performance, all within a week-long visit with guest collaborator Melissa Cartwright, who stars in the video as the Unicorn. The digitally-collaged printed fabric panels, drawn collaboratively by Mensch and Pelstring and titled by Kline, are based on stills from each scene of the video, and integrate botanical drawings referenced from the original Dutch tapestries.
