NORM IST F!KTION (Norm is Fiction)
Concept/Performance: NAF (Nana Huelsewig and Fender Schrade)
Painting: Mary Sherman, oil on canvas, 14”x18”, 2018

Aside from collaborating with composers for various current works and with the artist Rudi Punzo for The Mechanical Universe, Mary Sherman collaborated with the Stuttgart-based theatrical duo NAF for their work NORM IST F!KTION. For her part, she painted a portrait of the two performers that make-up NAF, Nana Huelsewig and the trans-person Fender Schrade, covered in hair, like human beasts. The portrait was unveiled as part of the NAF performance at the Schlossgartenhotel. Later it was used in a performance, where it replaced a Frans Hals in the Staadtsgalerie Stuttgart’s Old Master’s gallery as NAF’s contribution to the Staadtsgalerie’s series Kunst trift Kunst. (See video above.) Additionally, Sherman preformed as an actress in NORM IST F!KTION, playing the role of NAF’s international news anchor (opposite with the real life German reporter Markus Pfalgraf), which aired at the portrait’s unveiling.