The Virgin Barb-B is a 30-minute performance that
utilizes written script, improvisation, and audience participation. The piece opens with the Salesperson /
Master of Ceremonies, Juanita Diego. The human toy is revealed to the audience
as "Guadalupe Virgin Barb-B".
Audience members are invited to the stage to "test" the product and
initiate "play". Props, clothing,
make-up, and accessories are available for play. Inserted within the dialogue of Juanita Diego, are
significant and provocative expositions of the US Mexico border that touch on
several issues such as, consumption of the other, consumerism, maquiladoras,
labor exploitation, drug cartels, and human trafficking.
In Defile Ritual
Cleansing,
the common Western practice of vaginal douching is ritualized, as the subject
is clad with the vinegar chemical douche, while audio from modern douche
commercials suggest the female vagina must be cleansed of its pollution. Many of the world's culture worship and
value the female organ from which life is birthed. The dichotomy of cleansing the vagina with chemicals and the
practice of worshiping the vagina becomes a metaphor that addresses the
dichotomy of our societal disregard for abusing the land in our quest to exploit
natural resources and the profound relationship native peoples have with land
and nature. The connection between
vagina and land open a dialogue to consider the profound nature of life giving
essentiality, and the harm caused by unnatural injections of chemically
composed substances.
February 28, 2009 nearly 4,000
protesters of all ages and races gathered at Indian Steele Park in Phoenix
Arizona for a demonstration against the extreme measures Sheriff Joe Arpaio and
Maricopa Sheriff's Department perform within Maricopa County.
In collaboration with twelve-performance artists/activist, we utilized pink masks and white ropes as silent articulators for the inhumane treatment implemented on Hispanic residents and inmates in recent times. The group, "Raza Rosita" symbolized unity and human as they marched connected with ropes.
"Raza Rosita" members dramatized the plight of immigrants who the demonstrators believe are subjected to inhumane treatment." AZ Central
In collaboration with twelve-performance artists/activist, we utilized pink masks and white ropes as silent articulators for the inhumane treatment implemented on Hispanic residents and inmates in recent times. The group, "Raza Rosita" symbolized unity and human as they marched connected with ropes.
"Raza Rosita" members dramatized the plight of immigrants who the demonstrators believe are subjected to inhumane treatment." AZ Central
The Virgin Barb-E
Defile Ritual Cleansing
Raza Rosita
Written by EmaLee Arroyo