It's dry season here again and the earth's beginning to crack open, it's usual cyclical shapeshifting. I'm getting ready for our first Carnival in two years, preparing for my own shapeshifting during my residency at Alice Yard. This Saturday February 11th, I'll be showing some ongoing work at Granderson Lab in Belmont.

I'm developing work that I started in 2021, using the process of a snake shedding its skin as a metaphor for personal transformation and for our cyclical relationship with sexuality and creative expression in Trinidad & Tobago. We go from spending most of the year slut-shaming and (violently) suppressing femme power, to celebrating and honouring sexuality and self expression during the Carnival season. Until it's Ash Wednesday and we go back to telling everyone to cover their shoulders and ankles to go into government buildings. I feel like there's a similar cycle experienced by the queer community. There's an 'acceptance' that happens during the season that can be a stark contrast to the way we are treated throughout the year. I'm curious about this polarized colonized/liberated relationship we have with our bodies and with the spaces that we are able to occupy during and outside of Carnival.