Left — Corset trousers by Dilara Findikoglu, boots by Rombaut, bracelet by Chloe, rings by Rathel & Wolf, ear jewelry by Alan Crocetti
Right — Full look by Shushu Tong, corset by Fleet Illya, shoes by Chloe, jewelry by Alan Crocetti, choker by Inaurem
Hi!
Hello!
Where have you been based during covid?
In London, mostly. In my bedroom, in my garden, in the parks; I spent a lot of time sunbathing in the park. I don’t know how much we can say, but going to squat raves and warehouse parties.
How is that?
Fun, really fun. I enjoy sitting in and being quiet and still, but you need contrast, right? So yeah, partying as well.
How is it there?
I have no idea, I don’t know what to think of the situation. It feels like they make one rule and then they make another. We’re learning change is so constant, that to just be truly present in the moment with what’s happened is the only salvation, I believe. There’s a new rule you definitely can’t have more than 6 people, so the second wave of lockdown is maybe happening? But then I just did my first live public performance last night.
What kind of performance?
It’s part of a continued collaboration with Keiken, a digital arts collective. We’ve been collaborating for nearly two years, digital world building. We made a CGI film together. It’s called “Feel My Metaverse”, and then there’s a new one, “We Are at the End of Something”. That one was in collaboration with Ryan Vautier. Really fun world building experience where I get to throw out my wildest ideas and then they make into some sort of reality. But the performance last night was a really intimate thing. We made tattoos that augment reality, I don’t wanna say too much…
What did the performance entail?
It was a combination of dance. At first it was about interacting with technology, so the audience members come in and technology is activated through a tattoo or sticker on my chest. So they activate it and they get to see an augmentation of me. After everyone had that experience, then I gave a small dance. A six minute thing, more along the lines of an offering than a performance. I worked as a dancer before and toured the world and danced on big stages, and it took a lot of the heart out of dance… it’s quite cold and meaningless to perform to a black space. When you meet the patrons supporting the work, they really have no interest. So it’s about finding those people you can collaborate with, who have a good intention, who have something that they really care about spreading.
You give so much when you perform, and you want it to be some sort of exchange of energy, and maybe you don’t feel that when you’re performing to a big empty space on a big stage.
Yeah, at that point, I'd rather just dance my own dances on my own. Instead of working so hard to dance someone else’s dance. It’s making something very natural to all of us into a commodity and into fitting into the capitalist system. I’d much rather be in collaborative spaces where if I am dancing, I’m facilitating someone else’s expression, them facilitating mine, so we can really work to grow something together that is honest and true, rather than something that is trying to please an audience. A sharing of energy, definitely.
What would you say your mission is as an artist?
To create change, to show that change is possible. To be free. Above everything, to be free. Freedom for myself, for my loved ones, for any and everyone who can receive it, who can be vulnerable enough to accept it as their reality. To show freedom is possible and it’s the realest thing. Way more real than any kind of lower energy frequencies or emotions.
What makes you feel the most free?
Expressing myself. Expressing myself in the many different ways that are possible. Allowing myself to be multifaceted, and in that, reminding other people of their multifaceted nature. It makes me feel free to realize myself, I guess, and through modeling and through this shoot in particular, I got to realize myself in a way that I’d never been able to physicalize before. That process of collaboration, of bringing something together, it was magic. Jacob and I, the photographer, after it was done, we were looking at some of the photos and we just cried. Because it’s been both of our wildest dreams to create something that really meant something to both of us.
