Performing Defiance was performed live at The Defibrillator Gallery, RAPID PULSE INTERNATINAL PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL, Chicago, Illinois and the MADE Festival, NorrlandsOperan's, Umeå, Sweden. The Performing Defiance Photographic Series is a commissioned series of "performance photographs" by the Danish Statens Kunstfond (Danish Arts Foundation). The photographs were shot by Clare Britt, on the occasion of the live performance Performing Defiance as part of the RAPID PULSE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL, Chicago, Illinois, 2015. This series of 5 images were created by artist Mary Coble. The edition of each image is 5 with an artist proof. This series is owned by the Danish Arts Foundation and is available to be loaned out by public institutions within Denmark. The photographic series was exhibited at the Royal Cast Collection (part of the Statens Museum for Kunst) Performing Defiance focuses on the raised fist as a repeated symbol of protest. The artist questions contemporary discourses of progress and success, for instance in regards to homonationalist takes on gay rights and the mainstreaming and commercialization of LGBTQ Pride marches which initially were part of social activist movements with the goal to claim space and create visibility. Coble uses the raised fist as an act of opposition to structures of exclusion and as a reminder to protest the discrimination of society’s marginalised groups. The performance includes a pink triangle, the iconic and reclaimed symbol for homosexuality, which Coble activates with the tactical frivolity of glitter bombing. The exhibition Gestures of Defiance reimagines protest banners with the raised fist from various political contexts in the installation at Vita Kuben the artist calls for a reclaiming of the raised fist as a sign of solidarity with those who are not in a position of privilege or visibility today. The exhibition includes 15 raised fist 'honor banners’ that are based on past and current organizations, activist logos and symbols where the raised fist represents opposition to oppression; a suspended pink latex triangle in the middle of the space that holds the threat of a glitter bomb weighting it down; small installations of glitter piles placed around the space on the floor; an archive of fist flags gathered during the 2014 Pride Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden and free publication that discusses the history of the raised fist and the potential political powers of act of tactical frivolity such as, drag, pieing and glitter bombing. In the performance piece Coble embodies a protesting figure jumping with their fist raised over an exaggerated period of time, stretching this expression of dissatisfaction to it’s potential in a durational act of resistance. The repeated gestures of protest will be vacillating between excitement and failure. Adding a pink latex triangle and an abundance of glitter to the act of raising a clenched fist, the artist activates a number of codes, traditions and tactics from queer history and counter-culture. Coble thus combines both the exhilaration and exhaustion of an extended protest that allows for unpredictability, messiness and failure as strategies in the fight for non-conformative values. During this performance a zine Gestures of Defiance (ISBN: 978-91-982585-0-9) was handed out for free. This publication holds a collection of fist symbols from the 1960s to today as well as an introduction to the fist and glitter as gestures of defiance by Mary Coble. Two commissioned essays further contextualize the raised fist iconography: Lincoln Cushing provides a historical overview of the clenched fist symbol, and Mathias Danbolt offers a queer political argument for raising our fists today in a piece written on the occasion of Coble’s Protest in Pride. In addition, a short, reprinted text by Hadassah Damien describes how queer sexual politics and sexual practice intersect in the symbol of the clenched hand. Coble has also compiled a selection of glitter bomb examples, mapping out high publicity glitter bombings together with a contextualization of the action.