Javier Stell-Fresquez, Ivan “Ivy” Monteiro, Davia Spain
About This Artist
Javier Stell-Fresquez (Chican@, Tigua & Piro Native), Ivan “Ivy” Monteiro (Brasil), and Davia Amerasu Spain (San Francisco Bay Area native), compose a trinity of young, fierce, POC femme artists. Our collective expertise spans theater, sound and video production, dance, and organizing, as well as drag, among other forms that our queer ancestors developed in queer nightlife spaces, and backyard family barbecues.
Applying intersectional and intertribal methods, we set our triune gaze on the landfill that is our present society. Holding up umbilical and ancestral knowledge as we decolonize the future, our very existence and emergent voices defy neocolonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.
Mother The Verb is a Queer/Trans performance dance, produced and created by Ivan Monteiro (Brasil), Javier Stell-Fresquez (Chican@ originally from El Paso, Tigua & Piro Native), and Davia Amerasu Spain (San Francisco Bay Area native), a trinity of young, fierce, POC femmes fucking up post-colonialism, white supremacy and patriarchy one breath at a time. This trinity will be making a new experimental performance piece exploring the glorification and damnation of our many mothers, asking how we can transcend the toxins flowing in our bodies and societies.
“Primeiro estranha-se, depois entranha-se” (At first it’s strange, then it gets into your veins) – Fernando Pessoa I am part of the Human/ID team, a collaboration with StratoFyzika and Ian Heisters that probes how identity is rendered legible (or illegible) through movement and technology. Tagging onto the notion of digital flaws and their rich potential […]
Deep fake dancing and breaking technology I’ve been talking with the StratoFyzika team about how identity resides in the body for their residency in CounterPulse’s Combustible program. We’re researching surveillance technology, machine learning, and dance for a performance in spring 2020. The research is conceptual as well as practical, and the following comprises my notes in building a first […]
We are artists. In some ways, we are sacrificial lambs. We bleed publicly. We can be found dancing naked and crying the necessary tear. We do this so they can name what they have sacrificed. To those without words, we give poetry; those without melody, a song. And to him, that guy, that just can’t […]
Rachael Dichter & Dia Dear are Edge Residency 2020 artists-in-residence. Their new work, WITH, opens at CounterPulse Apr 2-4 & 9-11. Get tickets at counterpulse.org/edge2020. Photos by Robbie Sweeny
I’ve always been a fan of Robbie Sweeny. For years I’ve admired his photographer choreography, his hurried movement and cadence during performances. It takes considerable method and skill to shoot the perfect angle, and to capture the compelling photos that highlight CountrePulse’s Instagram feed. My colleagues and I admire his stylistic editing; together we scroll […]