In Thomas's new solo project  - COME HELL OR HIGH FEMMES: THE DOLLS RISE - a three part film and multimedia performance, Thomas charts a post-apocalyptic geography.

Her world is lush and verdant; the artist, bathed in a sky blue dress of tulle, wanders across babbling brooks, oceans, and atop hills of fertile land.

Thomas imagines a time where the dolls — a word that, loosely, means a trans femmes so flawless and unbound they are no longer considered real — have survived a mass extinction.

Why are dolls the only ones left? Perhaps, it is because trans femmes (often, but not always) are forged in nocturnality, where beauty and intelligence must learn to supersede time and space. Thomas reclaims what it means to be black in nature, forging new ways to exist in peace, joy, and healing in relation to the American landscape.

The work moves through sound, light, poetry, dance, and music as forms of resistance and healing. The choreography is based on queering landscapes, camouflage, and metamorphosis as modes of survival and transcendence for queer and trans people.

Booking Information

Wednesday 13th August, 7pm at the Horse Hospital 

︎︎︎ RSVPs essential - Book tickets HERE

Set in the year 2666, following a mass extinction of most human life, Come Hell or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise explores - in Thomas’ words - a “postapocalyptic world where black transfemmes have survived and are building a new universe.” - Joshua Chambers

About Keioui Keijaun Thomas

Keioui Keijaun Thomas (b.1989) is a New York-based artist. She creates live performance and multimedia installations that address  the multifaceted realms of Black identity formation, encompassing affective, material and economic dimensions. Through a captivating fusion of sculpture and performance,  the work explores the transient nature of the “doll”— a trans femme  so flawless and unbound she is no longer considered real—as both a work in progress and a formidable force of nature.

Utilizing an array of materials such as paper, hair, sugar, rubber, tape, acrylic, water, enamel and skin to create tableaus that are intricately intertwined with her own body. Her performances combine rhapsodic layers of live and recorded voice, slipping between various modes of address, to explore the pleasures and pressures of dependency, care, and support. By centering self and communal care in real-time, Thomas’ practice aims to build bridges of understanding and community.

Thomas has presented work both nationally and internationally. She earned her Masters degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA with Honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York. 

See more of her recent work HERE 

Credits

COME HELL OR HIGH FEMMES: THE DOLLS RISE  as part of ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE is co-curated by Mine Kaplangı, Benjamin Sebastian, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Ash McNaughton. The programme is made possible with public funding from the National Lottery and Arts Council England.