Gray Wielebinski, Manuka Honey, and agustine zegers,
We Got Spirit, 2025
Soundtrack
Gray Wielebinski, Manuka Honey, and agustine zegers collaborate on We Got Spirit, a new performance that interrogates how cheerleading, a symbol of hyper-femininity and American patriotic ritual, might be made subcultural. Evoking the haunting Texas landscape from Wielebinski and Manuka Honey’s childhoods, the work reflects on the twilight of the American empire, queering mainstream culture and tradition. Permeating the Deadhouse, a 17th century crypt beneath the Somerset House courtyard, will be an olfactive environment composed by zegers, commissioned by Dean’s Bottom, in collaboration with Somerset House Studios.
Amidst pulsing red lights reminiscent of oil rigs across Texas, the artists conceived two smells: Subterranean, 2025 - with its piercing notes of burning tyre rubber, extinction solvent and petroleum extraction - and Surface, 2025 evoking non-native (GMO) florals, football field lawn and the mustiness of a locker room.
Disseminated from diffusers placed on opposite ends of the room, both smells converged in the central performance space.
Performed by XXS Slug and Martina Derosa.
Banner fabrication Aannika Thiems. Costumes by HRH.
Part of AGM 2025. Curated by Marina Doritis.
17 October 2025
The Deadhouse at Somerset House