Fall 2022

Installation for preformance art work

Alluding to time spent in the bedroom of childhood best friend May May, dressing in her clothes as a boy, the performance hopes to capture personal feelings and moments connected to gender expression and exploration. Clothing, acting as an archive, embodies the ever-changing relationship an individual may have with the way they present themselves to the world. Through presenting, selecting and changing into clothes, accessories and makeup that range between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ means of expression, a private, personal activity is turned vulnerable and visible as it occurs in a publicly set bedroom.

A deeper layer of emotion is explored through the articles, phrases and images found throughout the room, referencing feelings of guilt and shame that come with the struggle of gender expression while conscious of personal privilege. Allusions to personal family history of poverty, struggle, and immigration, and to a global level of suffering, can be found throughout the bedroom, along with religious and cosmic imagery that aim to place the uniquely individual issue of gender expression to into a greater context of existence. Reminiscent of May May’s actual bedroom, the installation’s décor reflects pop-cultural references of the late 2010s through its style, images, and posters of singers Lana Del Rey and Marina.

Video by David Moraru

Music: Obsession by Marina