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Gobbling Market

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A woman with tattoos and black hair is on all fours across a pink satin covered table, amongst rotting fruit.
a close up of fruit and centurg egg, mixed together.
A woman and a non binary femme figure hold fruit whilst on top of a table covered in fruit.
squished and messy fruit across a satin tablecloth, the juices soaking through the fabric.
a woman lies across a table covered in rotting fruit.
cherries inside a bowl of milkty liquid.
mealworms on strawberries, century egg in the background.

2024 Take Me Somewhere studio residency research images, supported by the Buzzcut Emerging Artist Award.

"Drawing from the narrative poem Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, with its incredibly visceral, beautiful, and sensual descriptions of fruit, longing, and friendship, Chao-Ying Rao and David Ronan explored the intersections of disgust, queer desire, and fetishisation through new choreographies and the use of organic materials." - Take Me Somewhere

With special thanks to David Ronan

performance documentation of a woman with long black hair bent over on top of a circular table covered in rotting fruit, whilst wearing see through latex. The crowd watches her.
installation documentation of rotting fruit, flowers and crusteasans on top of emboidered 'oriental' style fabric.
performance documentation of a woman with long black hair on all fours on top of a circular table covered in rotting fruit, whilst wearing see through latex. The crowd watches her.
installation documentation of mould on top of an apple.
performance documentation of a woman with long black hair bent over on top of a circular table covered in rotting fruit, whilst wearing see through latex. The crowd watches her.
installation documentation of rotting fruit, flowers and crusteasans on top of emboidered 'oriental' style fabric.
performance documentation of a woman throwing a ribbon of paper. There is a wash of red light.
Performance documentation of a woman pourind liquid on herself. She is wearing see through latex and there is a wash of red light.

Taking its namesake from Christina Rosetti’s narrative poem Goblin Market, a controversial and sensuous poem which challenged the mores of Victorian Britain, Rao’s new work is set against the backdrop of the Opium Wars and China’s century of humiliation. Reflecting on geopolitical and immigrant stories of consumption, desire, alienation — and the exotic temptations from the motherland.

Gobbling Market premiered at the 2025 iteration of Buzzcut Double Thrills at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, with support from Creative Scotland and the Buzzcut Emerging Artist Award.

Costume fabrication & design: Carmel O'Brien
Dramaturgy and sound support: Mamoru Iriguchi
Photography: Steven M / STMC Studios
Videography: Beth Chalmers
With special thanks to Karl Taylor, David Ronan, Buzzcut, Take Me Somewhere, and the CCA.

"A solo performance delivered in the midst of a sumptuous feast of food. Narratively we are taken back to the very first Bank Holiday, Crystal Palace in London and the exploitative Opium Wars, and the Barnum like Gobbling Market of excess and Victoriana with Chao-Ying Rao (Femme Castratrice) guiding us through physically and with the spoken word a visually exploitative and provocative performance of poise. Technically a visual feast, literally a challenging watch." - Donald Stewart for Fringe Review, 2025

performance
glasgow, 2025