ance
Trust My Gut: A Drag Opera Surgery >> a durational performance installation exploring themes of love and labour through drag aesthetics and soap operatic drama in collaboration with Toronto-based artist Marisa Hoicka.
Dressed in drag as surgeon and patient, the performers embark on an eight hour sugery complete with endoscopic monitoring. The performance occurs inside of an IRL YouTube screen, crocheted to match the patient's yarn-sculpted organs. For the eight hour duration of the piece, audience members choose from a list of famous love ballad duets from a laptop in front of the YouTube scene. Hitting play on a track sends the performers into melodramatic lipsynch.
The work premiered at XPACE as part of the FADO Performance Art Centre’s Emerging Artists Series in 2011.
photography Henry Chan