{"id":63727,"date":"2022-05-28T10:15:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T16:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=63727"},"modified":"2023-11-13T13:52:43","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:52:43","slug":"voices-of-queer-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/voices-of-queer-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices of Queer Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Still from Sangram Mukhopadhyay’s Fluid Man(?)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Queer Spectra Arts Festival<\/em> returned last weekend to Salt Lake City with both online and in-person performances. The 2022 theme, Tell It Like It Is<\/em>, invokes the words of social activist bell hooks when she said, \u201cthe function of art is to do more than tell it like it is \u2014 it\u2019s to imagine what is possible.\u201d This year\u2019s theme invited submissions that recognize the challenges that the LGBTQIA+ community faces and celebrates the strength of queer faith, family, and art.<\/h4>\n

The festival\u2019s second showcase displayed a broad range of performance art, from spoken word to screendance. The diversity of mediums created a jukebox-like viewing experience, shifting themes and topics between each performance. Undertones of religious conflict and environmental strain carried through the show, addressed by drag artist Luzsaint, who read \u201cthe desert doesn\u2019t care if it leaves holes\u201d from their poem \u201cFloor Boards.\u201d Questions of \u201cMy God\u201d and commentary towards the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints clearly reflected the experiences of queer youth growing up in Utah.<\/h4>\n

Funny features such as Kit Francis\u2019s comedic act Face Changer<\/em> balanced the show, amusing the audience with jests and gimmicks. Although a simple concept, as Francis used everyday objects to shapeshift between characters, the audience was asked to question the masks worn over queer identity and invited to step into a fluid gender experience. Aileen Norris\u2019s video performance Ping Pong Brain<\/em> similarly displayed a comedic struggle against external pressures, as she repeatedly failed to mount a piece of cardboard on a wall. These performances were successful because they were digestible and light, which Francis later discussed in the Q&A as a difficult approach towards queer art in a community that is burdened by heavy, complex problems.<\/h4>\n

The show\u2019s two screendances carried the bulk of the show\u2019s emotional weight. Based in Kolkata, India,\u00a0 Sangram Mukhopadhyay\u2019s Fluid Man(?)<\/em> used a voyeuristic close perspective to defamiliarize self embodiment. Fluctuating between undulating convulsions and tracing his own body in stillness, Mukhopadhyay displayed a full journey of self exploration. Transitions<\/em>, created by Hannah Fischer and Ira Kaufman, also explored a body in flux. Accompanied by the sounds of Kaufman\u2019s chimes and their words, Fichser used visual metaphors of tension and release to capture Kaufman\u2019s experience within their gender transition. These screendances highlighted introspection through symbolism while showing great vulnerability from both Mukhopadhyay and Kaufman.<\/h4>\n
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Still from video documentation of Saggy Titties. Courtesy of Queer Spectra.<\/p><\/div>\n

While most performances in this show extended a hand towards empathy and sympathy, one outlier stood apart from the rest. Tori Meyer and Nora Lang provided the only live dance performance of the evening with their piece Saggy Titties<\/em>. Beginning with linear pathways and deconstructed movements, the dancers eventually unfurled blank nylon slings from their jacket sleeves, prompting them to pendulum and swing across the stage. Eventually ending the piece stripped down to only mesh underclothes, the two ended in an amorphous web of each other’s stretched appendages. Unexpected, dynamic, and abstract, this piece gave the audience an inquisitive gaze into alternative queer art but clearly served the artists\u2019 satisfactions foremost.<\/h4>\n

As Queer Spectra<\/em> reorients itself after the pandemic, it has traded a broader scope of geographic representation in favor for a Utah-centric festival. This narrowed focus gave greater opportunity for the audience to directly relate with the performances. For a festival that seeks to retain and attract queer artists to Utah, this year\u2019s Queer Spectra<\/em> successfully created opportunities for queer voices to \u201ctell it like it is.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Queer Spectra Arts Festival<\/a> was held in Salt Lake City, May 22-29.<\/p>\n

This article is published in collaboration with loveDANCEmore.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queer Spectra Arts Festival returned last weekend to Salt Lake City with both online and in-person performances. The 2022 theme, Tell It Like It Is, invokes the words of social activist bell hooks when she said, \u201cthe function of art is to do more than tell it like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1694,"featured_media":63728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/ScreenShot2022-05-29at12.24.58PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-26 18:23:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70665,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63727\/revisions\/70665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}