Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa
MARIACHI HISTRIONICS
In the performance Mariachi Histrionics, I wanted to achieve a state of hysterical masculinity. Central to this performance was the analysis of gender roles as artificial constructs, and a queering of the traditional figure of the Mariachi as a Don Juan. I used the word “histrionics” for its reference to nineteen-century cases of “male hysteria”. A dictionary definition of “histrionics” reads: theatrical arts or performances; exaggerated behavior calculated for effect. In psychoanalysis, the hysterical-male type known as Don Juan (Don Juan Complex) is viewed as frantically attempting to prove his manhood, either through appearance or often by the “conquest” of women. Freud writes that to chase women is in reality an attempt to find one that has male sexual elements. That is, he is driven compulsively to undress women in a fruitless search after a penis (Tanya Mars explored this eloquently in her mid-eighties performance Pure Nonsense, where Alice lifts her skirt to reveal a phallus).
Curated by Todd Janes
Visualeyez, Edmonton