Abstract
This thesis makes the case for understanding, historicising, relating, curating, writing, working with queer-trans-feminist live art (and queer-trans-feminist praxis more broadly) from transnational perspectives. To do so, I propose a methodology that decentres the globalised reach of Anglo-American- nominated knowledge production (especially in queer studies), expands the European art canon and opens up the modes by which cultural workers/researchers/curators can write/think/curate beyond their comfort zones through embodied, grounded, response-able and processually oriented methods that hold positionality into account. Such methods allow for translating, sensing and listening deeply to the workings of the performing bodies and the contexts they extend into – with their hyperlocal environments, spiritual beliefs, traditions, sonic/visual cultures, grassroot activism and communities of belonging.Through a curated anti-colonial mapping across Southern Europe, West Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, I draw a transnational and coalitional scene of under- explored yet influential queer-trans-feminist artists working with live art. The four artists/collectives started being active at the end of the 2000s, or later: Quimera Rosa, a migrant Spanish-born collective using (bio)hacking and speculative fiction; Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, a trans woman based in Ghana who uses extreme body performances and abject aesthetics; Linn da Quebrada, a travesti performer employing music, rhythm and Afro-Brazilian spiritual legacies; Eisa Jocson, a Filipina dance-trained artist exploring ‘macho’ and feminine embodiments. These artists’ performative interventions produce new knowledge by opening critical inquiries and interpretations as they move beyond dominant Western art historical/theoretical canons, more established histories of queer and feminist liberation, and by being themselves transnationally interconnected.
My embodied engagement with these artists’ works seeks to provide more accessible perspectives, analytical tools and ethical modes of wit(h)nessing the ever-expanding field of queer-trans-feminist live art practice and research – a transdisciplinary field that speaks to queer/trans/gender studies, performance, curating, art history and transnational studies, among others
Date of Award | 10 Sept 2024 |
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Original language | English |
Awarding Institution |
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Sponsors | technē AHRC |
Supervisor | Graham White (Director of Studies), Ioana Szeman (Co-Supervisor) & Eleanor Roberts (Co-Supervisor) |
Keywords
- Live art
- performance
- Latin America
- transnational
- Spain
- counter-histories
- Philippines
- queer
- transgender
- Ghana
- Brazil
- feminism
- transversality
- queer-trans-feminism
- queer feminism