Killjoy's Kastle — Deirdre Logue

01.04

Killjoy’s Kastle

With Allyson Mitchell

2016–2026

killjoyskastle.com

Killjoy’s Kastle is a large-scale, multimedia, walk-through installation and performance that evokes all the fright in lesbian-feminist histories so that we might unpack, reject, or critically recover these stories for the queer present. To date, four cities have hosted a version of the Kastle; Toronto, in 2013, with the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU); London, in 2014, with the British Film Institute; Los Angeles, in 2015, with the ONE Lesbian and Gay Archives; and Philadelphia, in 2019, with Icebox Project Space.

The project finds its roots in “traditional” carnival haunted houses and lesbian-feminist direct-action aesthetics. Formally, community theatre-tactics, soundscapes, conversation, lighting design, performance, props, sculpture, costuming and public interaction all inform the Kastle.

Built with creepy but whimsical craft aesthetics, the space stages 8-12 interactive human-scale dioramas. Visitors tour through each of these “scenes” guided by their Demented Women’s Studies Professor who narrates the trip. The journey ends with Real Life Feminist Killjoys and some hardcore lesbian processing.