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Martin de Mesa (b.1987)

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I am a Filipino queer artist who focuses on creating performances and time-based media. One of my main creations is the character BOHOVEE, which highlights the objectification of an alter-ego through performative rituals. Bohovee is greatly influenced by drag; however, its essence revolves more around the audience's intimate engagement and experience through her agency of enchantment within the performance space, which I refer to as SHE-MAN-IC RITUALS. In this case, I strongly consider Bohovee’s audiences as collaborators, and vice versa.

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BOHOVEE is a shape-shifter described as audacious, a seductress, and a queer enchantress. BOHOVEE has multiple versions and monikers, each with specific looks and costumes, primarily performing with a commanding presence. Each character embodies bold qualities of queerness while maintaining authoritative power. BOHOVEE utilizes non-verbal body language, unpredictability, and provocation as strategies for seduction.

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Language, both spoken and unspoken, plays a significant role in BOHOVEE's ritualistic performances. The character employs self-created chants, incantations, and catchy pop jingles as conduits for channeling obscurity, awkward energies, humor, and tenderness, creating bridges for human connections. Audience participation is crucial in BOHOVEE's intimate performances, as it aims to challenge their comfort zones and transcend limits. The character purposefully confronts the audience's expectations, highlighting the unstable, impulsive, and precarious aspects of existence.

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To enhance the magic of BOHOVEE's performances, I collaborate with musicians and sound artists. The collaborative process adds exuberant charm and excitement to the performances. Additionally, I incorporate my own homosexual desire as the driving force behind BOHOVEE, celebrating and embracing it fully. As part of my project called "Muses of Bohovee", I scout for local male models in public places, community, and through online engagements. The daring photoshoots feature the models courageously presenting their naked bodies in skimpy briefs. The resulting video recordings are used to create performative videos, while the photographs are utilized in collages, personal altars (mixed-media installations), and realistic pastel drawings representing immortalized muses.

 

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