Girls are safe in the USA... until they're born. 

(I) Miss America is a multidisciplinary live art project by London-based American expatriate artists Hannah Ballou & Peter Case evoking the central hypocrisy and the dystopian present of Post-Roe v. Wade, gun-loving America, in solidarity with people fighting for abortion rights and bodily autonomy across the globe. 

It comprises a short film that was shortlisted for the FluxusMuseum Prize for Experimental Video, a 140-cm-height cube sculpture, and a photography series that has been shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society’s IPE 167.  The film’s UK premiere is at Sick Festival in Manchester,  29-30 May at the Contact Theatre where it will be exhibited alongside the cube.

Artist statement

“This project has percolated in my brain since the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The rage of American women and girls trapped like brood animals is not subtle in its representation. However, the title of the work is true; I DO miss America. Though I love my life in London, I’ve entertained half-spun fantasies about coming back to live in some of my favourite American cities; but the fantasy shuts down when I imagine my children participating in active shooter drills, or (as of late) my partner getting kidnapped by ICE.

I’m angry that American women have to repeat the work of a previous generation. Part of that work is teaching girls to demand autonomy. Making this work together with my daughter involved having age-appropriate conversations about abortion care; she was already well-informed about how pregnancy works, having witnessed my pregnancy with her brother. It turned out to be very unsensational news to her that you can terminate a pregnancy, and that’s as it should be. Abortion is normal healthcare; we have to normalise it.

When I told her I had an abortion a few years before she was born, she immediately started taking the piss out of me. ‘What!  I could have had an older brother! Jerry! My dear sweet Jerry!’ she laughed. This reaction was incredibly refreshing. She has never been taught that abortion is shameful, so she will never feel that stigma if she ever needs one. If she does ever choose to give birth, it will be because she wanted to, not because she defaulted into it. So while my own daughter is safe in the UK with access to legal, safe, free abortion, we fight for her fellow American girls.” 

– Hannah Ballou  

Project Credits
4 min 49 sec
Live art film: Hannah Ballou & Peter Case
Performed by: Georgia Triana-Ballou
Cinematography & Editing: Claire Nolan
Photography: Jemima Yong
Set Design: Peter Case
Editing: Claire Nolan
Music: Flint Kids ‘Day Nil’
Hair: Gunel Kelly
Make Up: Dani Ferrarezi

The views the performer expresses in the film are unscripted.