322:(meaning 'arousal from fear') is a 1-hour multimedia production performed for very small audiences, typically 20 to 25 people at a time. Participants are blindfolded and led "in a human chain of trusting hands-on shoulders" to a second location, into the near darkness of a small room, to observe what Lawson calls "a peculiar interrogation." Canadian performance studies scholar Peter Dickinson notes, "In this piece a pop-up book is transformed into a scale-model theatre, which Lawson's projected shadow self navigates in a way that contrasts with our initial glimpse of his live body: perched precariously on a box, arms outstretched, head hooded by a paper bag (...)." Projection and shadow are used in this very dark, surreal, highly visual, and sonic piece, referencing the poetic and cinematographic World War II era work of
484:'s curatorial collective, Urban Occupations Urbaines, to create a site-based installation in Griffintown, one of Montreal's many historically working-class and rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Collaborators from the Montreal art scene were hired to produce short audio narratives with dioramas contained in shoeboxes. These dioramas were animated by Lawson and Pollard when visitors selected a corresponding shoe from the display on the walls of the venue. Laura Levin, writing for
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retrospective themselves. As Lawson says, "perhaps in a way own them afterwards." Lawson and
Pollard were onsite, "like mad scientists to bring these Frankensteins to life." The re-performers included favorites of the Anglo-Montreal underground: Jordan Arseneault, Antonio Bavaro, Joshua Pavan, An T Horné and
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The show uses site-specificity as a key element. Since the piece debuted at
Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, every iteration begins outside, leading the audience on a public promenade from a place of local significance in the neighborhood towards the performance venue. For the 2015 version at
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to the venue Sala Rossa, with members of
Montreal drag troupe "House of Bogue" (Judy Virago, CT Thorne, Jamie Ross, and 2Fik) leading the way. During this procession, O'Hara gave random spectators letters written by the show's creators to read aloud, recounting different scenarios of vigil for the
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pays tribute to the duo's body of cabaret work after the
Phenomena Festival asked them to produce a retrospective. Reflecting drag culture, where knowledge is passed from queen to queen, 2boys.tv cast their favorite local drag artists to learn and embody the performances instead of performing the
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The artists set up a séance-like environment for a participatory, bilingual performance that explored who is missing at the table. Language, translation, and understanding were important themes and practices at
Encuentro, with events in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.
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with sophisticated video projections, original and found sound scores, the art of lip-synch and object-oriented and site-based installation (...)". 2boys.tv is interested in the plasticity of video, often using it in a sculptural way instead of as a large screen.
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refers to the translucent protective material around a human egg. This 45-minute performance, which
Toronto's NOW magazine called "Queer film theory meets stylish techno-savvy (...)," works with multiple small-format projections and frequent audio samples of
326:. The piece examines the line between fear, torture, their sexualization, and pop culture's voyeurism of both. ""It is a project specifically designed to address fear, as an emotional but also as a political weapon," Pollard told
409:. These lip-synced performances convey a sense of alienation and distance, exploring themes of victimization, internal struggle with sexuality, and guilt. Critics have compared the effect to the works of filmmaker
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to create a dreamlike, filmic puzzle. An interrupted fairy tale allegory is replayed via projection on a succession of smaller and smaller miniature proscenium stages in what scholar Peter
Dickinson suggests is a
513:, the duo collapses linguistic distinctions, bridges the divide between stage, gallery, and street, and operates as actors, directors, and audience to produce an incessant relocation of boundaries.
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of each previous version. Lawson plays a gothic drag queen who communicates mainly through classic lines of film dialogue, invoking many campy screen heroines from cult movies, such as
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features a cast of young, local drag queens recruited from the cities to which the work has toured. These performers channel a historical archive of grief and loss around
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Dickinson, Peter (2018). "'Still (Mighty) Real': HIV and AIDS, Queer Public
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resulted from looking for a web domain name for the project. "(...) We came across this .tv which both references
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has been presented in
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the Phénomena Festival, the performance processed from Parc Lahaie in Montreal's
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2012 - Laboratorio Arte Alameda / International Festival of Cabaret (Mexico City)
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Romance of Transgression in Canada : Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas
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Pollard, Aaron and Stephen Lawson. "Tightrope, Translation and Transformation."
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in a 2011 interview. "But it's actually the domain of the small island in the
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scholar Peter Dickinson notes that their performance work "supplements a
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In this new-genre cabaret performance and installation, moving beyond
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An ongoing work for the duo, the 2011 variation collaborated with an
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22:(Stephen Lawson and Aaron Pollard) are a Canadian art duo based in
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Created to mark the 10th anniversary of 2boys.tv's collaboration,
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for outstanding achievement by mid-career artists working in the
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Fortin, Sylvie (2007). "La Biennale de Montréal, 2007".
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668:"Under the Radar: 5 Questions About 'Phobophilia'"
176:Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics
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898:Levin, Laura; MacDonald, EmmaRose (June 2015).
602:. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 452.
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