Performance artist Filip Canha performed THE WALK, a ground-breaking visual piece addressing people’s perception on Trans Rights, acceptance and vulnerability, in Brighton at the weekend.
It took Filip 582 hours to hand print the fabric of this costume, which had a 1950s Dior shape and featured a train 10 metres in length. The performance, which embodies the struggle and perseverance of trans and non-binary lives, intended to show the trans history of resilience but also seeks to point out the setbacks in the decades-long struggle for self-identification.
Filip Canha’s work looks at queer and feminist performance aesthetics and theory; performative approaches to action,protest & activism in performance; examins the relationship between difficulty and emotion (Affect) in art; technology; object and performance; and Body Politics: Performing Identity – Feminist and Queer Philosophies; transgenderism and performative notions of preconceived norms of masculinity and femininity. In Filip’s practice, they have been reinforcing ideas of latinix, genderqueer and affect.
Filip said: ‘[THE WALK] shows that the repealing of the Gender Recognition Act (2004) and reform is undemocratic, explicitly harmful to trans lives, and has stunted the progress made on trans rights in the UK during the past 15 years.
‘As well as this, the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests have posed questions that we as allies cannot ignore regarding the wellbeing and safety of black transgender people, particularly black transgender women.
‘We are currently seeing the government amend laws to make it more complicated for trans people to transition and access facilities such as toilets and changing rooms. The performance depicts an intersectional approach to Trans Rights since ‘there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives” – Audre Lorde.”
Performance & Fabric print: Filip Canha
Dressmaker: Kim Warren from Warren and Tapp
Hair: Darren O’Donoghue
Special Thanks: Emma Fielden, Molly Rodriguez, Sarah Savage, Cass Hoskins, Stevie Doherty, Hassan Hassan, Qudus Hassan, Lis Telcs, Ashleigh James Thomas.
For more info, follow Filip on Facebook @filipcanha
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