from the perspective of two

single-channel video and stereo audio

premiered at the WaveCave, California Institute of the Arts, October 2023

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writings and recorded conversations between Matt LeVeque (white text) and Justin Dela Cruz (purple text)

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program note:

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In a world where queer art is endlessly fixated on desire, yearning, and reaching, how do queer subjects navigate a post-desire world? How does love change once it is actualized, and how does it continue to act over time? What comes after yearning, and how can queer relationships exist responsibly without succumbing to the temptation of assimilation?

 

In the words of musicologist Gary C. Thomas, “the antidote to mythology is material reality.” This work pairs text from two sides of a relationship, tasked with recounting the same shared memories from each of their distorted perspectives, with recorded conversations between the two about their past, present, and hopes for the future. The memories are a tapestry that hint at new possibilities for new futures. Nostalgia is transformed into futurity.

 

“Love isn’t simply about two people meeting and their inward-looking relationship; it is a construction, a life that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective of Two. Love is the birth of co-possibility.” -Alain Badiou

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video samples: