Hot mess: vulnerability and seduction in the work of Lucy McCormick

‘Hot mess’ is a peculiarly gendered term suggesting public displays of disarray and disorder which reveal or enact vulnerability (as a mode of self-destructiveness) and near-collapse. It can also be read as a term of affection or kookiness (as well as potential exploitation). Hot mess is a simultaneously permissive and dismissive term, which resists the possibility of being known and of being legible. In this 10-minute ‘bit of stuff’ on hot mess (or ‘hot stuff’), I want to discuss a few brief moments of performance by UK artist Lucy McCormick, who, I argue, embraces the contradictions of the ‘hot mess’ as an endearing, mischievous, and seductive strategy in live performance, notably, in Life: LIVE! (2021, Battersea Arts Centre, London) and Lucy & Friends (2022, Yard Theatre, London).