Michelle Outram | EXPERIENTIAL PERFORMANCE
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 Better than a Blow-Up Doll  2004

"...Fortunately, there was other good work. Shagging Julie [sic] is a short piece for a small audience where you will discover the wonders of the Apoca-Lifestyle Corporation and it's oh-so designer Capsules for surviving whatever end-of-the-world is currently mandated. It's a 15-minute presentation in three flavours: of the two I saw, both the "pretending to work" cubicle drone and the future universal language based entirely on hair-care products provided stark and insightful comedy."

Stephen Dunne
Sydney Morning Herald
Jan 19 2004

_Group Members







Key Collaborators

Presented at

Supported By
__Michelle Outram, director 

Teik-Kim Pok      

Gavin Sladen


Luke Waterlow

Samuel James, video artist

Performance Space, Sydney

Department of Performance Studies, University of Sydney

Performance Space, Sydney

Australia Council for the Arts
___ Are current events causing you anxiety? Are you increasingly concerned about the forthcoming apocalypse? Attend a demonstration of Shagging Julie’s space-age products to ensure your survival in the aftermath...

Better than a Blow-Up Doll was part of an ongoing series of works exploring survival in the aftermath. Created by Shagging Julie* in 2004, it took place in a caravan that was set up as a ‘demonstration model’ fallout shelter equipped with the latest low-tech space-age gadgets. In the aftermath caravan, the performers were your ‘hosts’ from hell and you were the client.

Through sending up images of mid to late twentieth century apocalyptic paranoia and juxtaposing these with reactions to current events, Better than a Blow-Up Doll sought to highlight our mediatized society. The sales-pitch form of the work humorously emphasized the role of the market economy – the right to choose – in the formation of stratified society and its role in creating conflict.

*Shagging Julie was a performance group co-founded and directed by Michelle Outram between 2001 and 2004. More information on the groups work and philosophy can be found here.



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Copyright 2015