Juliana Francis, Go Go Go

Review in Issue 9-3 | Autumn 1997

In Go Go Go, Juliana Francis made explicit the link between incest and the sex industry. Adam Soch provided a constant stream of video imagery, some of which interacted directly with Juliana Francis' performance whilst at other times it provided an endless flickering backdrop of pop-culture imagery creating a crass, seedy vision of contemporary America. Go Go Go was as much about bad fathers as it was sex workers, and Uncle Sam is the ultimate bad father.

There wasn't always time in the visual onslaught to consider the exact meaning of some of the juxtapositions but this underlines the anger of the piece. It was this anger which gave the show its giddying energy. Go Go Go was a ninety-minute howl. It presented an alternative image of America, a nation as both pimp and client, both protector and violator.

Juliana Francis orchestrated her fury and imagery persuasively and yet the most powerful moment in the show was perhaps the quietest – the text was taken from E. Sue Blum's The Incest Survivor's After-Effects Checklist as Francis showed herself bit by bit. Go Go Go was a powerful piece with a powerful message and, if the line of thought was not always easy to follow, there was no mistaking its passion.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Festival
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Jun 1997

This article in the magazine

Issue 9-3
p. 22