Flush, 4K film with, 15 min 7.1 surround sound
Blending documentary, reenactment and poetry Flush focuses on flows of bodily waste in and out of hum/animal bodies in the making of reproductive science. Drawing on animal studies, history of science and fluid mechanics this poetic film blends medical and agricultural jargon that evolved as western scientists, eugenicists, zoologists, farmers and sociologists collaborated throughout the 20th century to control reproduction and in turn formalise gendered normative values within human society. Documenting work at the thresholds of bodies, Beech evokes a poetics of waste which disrupts fixed ideas about the body and its limits.
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.