objects
As I have been shooting and editing video I became aware of the fact that some of the objects that I use in my video only appear for a few seconds or not at all. When I say not at allI am referring to the
flesh prison
travel grant stills
My father moved to Thailand in 2008. Filming with my father was a huge part of the completion of my Thesis. The intention was to film with my father in different locations around Thailand. My sister also traveled to Thailand for the month of January. My sister and I engaged in childhood activities in our father’s home in Thailand
photos
when ever I am filming or getting ready to film niki always seems to be right around the corner taking photos of me. These are some of the photos that niki has taken over the past few years. They could be viewed as performance documentation.
drag
I was star-struck by Vaginal Davis who is an American genderqueer performing artist, painter, independent curator, composer, and writer. Vaginal cream davis coined the term terrorist drag. In other words the deconstruction or de-evolution of drag, or the reclaiming of drag as queer.
video drag
I found old videos and I was actually surprised that I had been interested in drag the past. Here are a few images from the video I found. I will post photos of the drag I have been doing with others soon.
interview
tb: Mainly I paint and draw. When painting I prefer oils and when I draw I use graphite and sometimes pen. My subjects mainly consist of queer people. Queer can be taken to mean LGBTQI or the more traditional definition, meaning strange or odd. I think these people make for interesting subjects. I love androgyny and people that are unique. I don't feel as though these people get the respect all the time
more images
Yep, I am totally into fashion photos. I think they are nuts! here are just a few that I have picked out. I will sometimes take these photos and use the same imagery in my videos, however I load them with my own content, and re-own or re-appropriate them as queer imagery.
travel grant
This year I received a travel grant to visit my dad in Thailand. I just wanted to share a little bit about how I constructed the grant. I am going to Thailand in order to film with my father, so the location is not extremely important. I am only showing part of the application which is below.
list of films to watch
I went through the films and movies that I have watched over the past year I Specifically picked this list to share, because all of them have informed my art practice is some way or another. I hope you enjoy them!
feeling backward by heather love
For the contemporary queer reader it remains difficult to find queer characters that are hidden within and between the lines of Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening. The characters’ refusal to be found makes it that much easier for contemporary readers to enforce queer invisibility.
dvd production and printing
I used the site mixonic.com to make my dvd. It was relatively low priced, for fifty blank dvd's. I wanted to have blank dvd's so that I could put my own material on them and give them to my thesis committee before my meetings. I also wanted to have something more professional to submit for grant proposals.
proof performance documentation
"And so woman's lightest whisper is heard as in Dionysius' ear, by quick relays and endless reproductions, through every recess and cavern as well as on every hilltop and mountain in her vast domain. And her mandates are obeyed. When she says "thumbs up," woe to the luckless thumb that falters in its rising. They may be little things, the amenities of life, the little nothings which cost nothing and come to nothing, and yet can make a sentient being so comfortable or so miserable in this life, the oil of social machinery, which we call the courtesies of life, all are under the magic key of woman's permit." ~ Anna Julia Cooper
video stills from flesh prison
The narrative driven, non-narrative nature of Flesh Prison will allow the viewer to fill in the gaps. The longer clips will allow the viewer to engage in a self-constructed narrative, and the montage will quickly pull them out of this narrative, which places the control back into my hands as the maker.
Script Summary
Flesh Prison will start with a baptism. The ritual of baptism is a western signifier of a transformative experience. Personally, baptism has become a performative action that is one step removed from religious tradition, which allows for a breadth of interpretations. My mother is studying to become a minister. She will perform my full submersion baptism in a lake.
images
I collect images that are linked to my art practice. These images stick in the back of my head and often find the way into my video work transformed into my aesthetic vocabulary. here are just a few…
bone sketches
Here are some sketches of bones I have done. I am going to attempt to recreate a leg. or part of a leg. I have included a video still of an already re-created leg. I am currently in the process of constructing the bones out of clay. I will attempt to cover them with something that resembles skin, however I am not sure what to use. I was looking at wax as well as latex. more to come later…
video stills from flesh prison
Flesh Prison will end with the digging of my own grave. I will dig my grave while wearing the baptism dress. The action of durational digging becomes performative. I will be placed in the grave, and climb out of the grave as a male-bodied person. Flesh Prison must not be minimized to a form of self-portraiture or autobiographical work. It is a complicated performative gesture involving gender as code. Suppressed eroticism will be made evident through the use of close up and violently cropped shots.
