Ublimé is a recurring figure in my work and pivotal character in the worldbuilding exercises of Queer Utopic Architecture: Ublimé is a trans‐(everythinged) trickster figure emerging from the tradition of electively masked identity through full‐body covering (the Tapada). Ublimé is an everyperson for a vision of queer futurity. Initially developed in Ublimé and her Epic Yawn, a text and performance piece, Ublimé offers a glimpse into another world: a world free from the capitalist impulse, heteronormative drive and an orientation towards material success. In Ublimé and her Epic Yawn, we learned that the secret to entering this sphere is through the act of yawning ‐ the literal and figurative opening up of the body. Ublimé presents as both an allegorical figure where needed, but also as a monad, Liebniz’s notion developed by Deleuze and Guattari into the idea of a unique instance of being and becoming in a field of potential/virtuality.
Research contributing to the realization of this work was created during a residency at Residencia en la Tierra, in Colombia. The artist gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the Ontario Arts Council's International Residency programme.
The Spinning Compass
VIDEO COMPONENT of live video/dance performance The Spinning Compass, presented by Matthew-Robin Nye (CAN) and Camille Jemelen (FR) for 'So You Think That Was Dance?', curated by Karen Fennell for the Bouge d'Ici Performance Festival, in Montreal January 2015.
The Spinning Compass follows our heroine Ublimé as she Yawn/enters the performance space through the audience's reflection, spinning wildly, interchanging the Actual World and the Virtual World - opening up potential and queering the stage.
Performance, video, text by Matthew-Robin Nye and Camille Jemelen
Music by Marc Wieser, an original recording and remixing of Gabriel Fauré’s Nocturne, Opus 63
Additional camera François Chevalier