Photo/ Foto: Marlène Ramírez Cancio

Cosmic Blood

'Cosmic Blood' explores the concept of mestizaje, a Spanish word used to describe the race mixture of Spanish and indigenous blood as a result of colonialism, from a perspective informed by history, contemporary culture and racial formation and creative, spiritual speculation about the future. The performance aims to illustrate the contradictory aspects of mestizaje in which the genocide and rape of one race led to the creation of a new race. Furthermore, it looks to redefine mestizaje to incorporate mixed race and queer identities, portraying subversive yet fluid identities to dismantle the binaries created by colonial constructs relating to race and gender.Theories of contact between ancient civilizations and extraterrestrials influenced the performance artist's vision of a cosmic mestizaje in which the impending transformation of the world as we know it may lead to possibilities for the creation of a new existence and way of being.

Biography

Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, also known as the Devil Bunny in Bondage, is a San Francisco based interdisciplinary performance artist, video artist, cultural activist, curator and percussionist of Filipino and Colombian descent. She is originally from Miami, Florida and received her B.A. from Brown University where she created an independent concentration entitled 'Hybridity and Performance.' She is currently the Artistic Director of (a)eromestiza, an interdisciplinary arts organization dedicated to presenting experimental video and performance work by queer and/or people of color.She has also worked with non-profit organizations such as Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida, New Langton Arts, Galería de la Raza, the Queer Cultural Center, Asian American Theater Company and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. She has worked on various artistic collaborations under the mentorship and direction of performing artists such as Pearl Ubungen, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Elia Arce and Afia Walking Tree. Her work in performance, video and writing has been presented nationally and internationally. She has received grants from the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, the San Francisco Art Commission Cultural Equity Grants Program, the Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize and the Zellerbach Family Fund.