Flush, 4K film with, 15 min 7.1 surround sound

Blending documentary, reenactment and poetry ‘Flush’ mediates on early 20th century efforts to define the human endocrine system. In a hospital lab a doctor performs a colour coded ‘placental injection dye’ procedure that originated to study the flows of hormones between female cows and their male twin during gestation. Such flows reveal astonishing levels of admixture and the resulting cows are often born intersex and labeled a ‘freemartin’. On a contemporary dairy farm a freemartin is put to work identifying sexual receptivity in other fertile cows. Supplemented with color-coded paint the freemartin is cued to mount and create gestural paintings on the backs of those ready for artificial insemination. This poetic film blends medical and agricultural jargon that evolved as scientists, eugenicists, zoologists, farmers and sociologists collaborated throughout the 20th century to harness the indeterminacy of the freemartin in view of formalising gendered normative values within human society. 

Flush developed from a collaborative writing project with historian of science Dr. Tamar Novick during Beech’s fellowship at The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.