Baby Boy, Mixed Media Installation, 2021

Ciclos 1 performed at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media

© Nick Thomas

© Clemens Wildschut

BABY BOY

MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION

Mixed media installation and text recital

Carbon black coated urethane resin and steel,

galvanized seizing wire, sound/ narration

6 minutes, 2021

Baby boy presents an intergenerational story about one’s precarious relationship to the concepts of ancestry, heritage and family. A pre-Colombian depiction of sacrifice (San Agustín, Huila, 1-900 AD) becomes a catalyst for transformative change. Baby boy is an attempt to try to make sense of duelling consciousness inherent to the experience of becoming displaced from one's culture, community and country (in this case) through intercontinental adoption.

Baby Boy premiered August 17th as a part of Clash Series 1:1: Noorderzon at EMG Faktors in Groningen.

This project was financially supported by Stichting Art of Clash

CICLOS 1

VIDEO INSTALLATION

AND PERFORMANCE

4-Channel video installation, live video, text recital

10 minutes, 2021

Ciclos 1 is both a prototype for a video installation and a performance that presents multiple perspectives on the concepts of ancestry, heritage and non-traditional family composition. Bringing together narration, sound and video this work (re)creates stories that merge past, present and future lived experiences. Sometimes in complementing, sometimes contrasting ways, Ciclos 1 mixes and melds the worlds of adoption, commercial D.I.Y. DNA testing and the ethics of genetic modification.

During V2’s 2021 Summer Sessions residency I focussed on creative writing exercises to develop two first stories for a future documentary video installation and audiovisual performance. New research into the Dutch history of intercontinental adoption (particularly in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s) combined with my ongoing research into the commodification of biometric data informed this new work. In an effort to give meaning to the lived experience of displacement and becoming othered, this work presents learnings from queer theory and decolonial practices. In this way, Ciclos 1 strives to create and hold space particularly for people who identify with queerness, and people with a bicultural identity and/or history of migration.

Ciclos 1 premiered September 9th as a part of Test_Lab: Summer Sessions 2021.

This project was co-produced by V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media as part of the Summer Sessions art and technology residencies.

ACT NATURAL 04

SOLO SHOW

Face Value

    CMYK Print

    2.131*50cm, 230*50cm

GATC 001: Incomplete statistic probability

    Video, handheld, tripod

GATC 002: A conversation with my mom

    Audio recording, transcript, translation

    Stereo (*3), A4 print (*4)

Act Natural 03: Face Value

    Lecture performance

    Text recital, music, wall projection

    6 minutes

Act Natural is the spur of the moment reaction during a serious or unexpected event. To be told to act natural is to be told to adapt to a changing environment. How does one go about repositioning, reconfiguring oneself to an unstable form, perhaps a (social) code, an idea, a new technology, a presumed understanding?

What’s natural anyway?

Act Natural is a space where research, personal expression and creative production come together in an effort to make sense of the identity of the self, the visible and the invisible world. The fourth iteration of my new performance series Act Natural presented a full program with the presentation of new work, a sound bath, lectures, lecture performances and live electronic music. These various forms are brought together to both celebrate and critically reflect on the politics of perception, the politics of image production techniques and the implications of using old and new technologies in personal expression and self exploration.

As a part of this evening I presented 3 new works that were on show at Roodkapje for two weeks. These new works reflect on the process of learning about ancestry, health and personal traits through DNA testing.

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