Trident Gallery presents The Political Body, an intermedia performance by New York City artists Monstah Black and Mx. Oops.

The performers will also participate in a panel discussion entitled “The Political Body in Art” at the gallery on Saturday, April 1 at 4pm.

These performances and panel discussion will take place in the context of an exhibition of art on the same theme opening Friday, March 31.

Both performers will bring original solo intermedia works that combine dance, live music, and visual art elements.

Monstah Black will present Cotton, a dance film accompanied by live musical performance. The work investigates the idea of physical transformation as a source for healing and a means to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder passed on for generations through DNA. Black employs images from slavery as a point of departure, modifying the images into positive iconography to inspire and empower those that suffered and continue to suffer from its ugly legacy.
“It’s a matter of taking the historical facts from the ugly side of history, and then reshaping it for myself and others to achieve empowerment and affirmation,” Black says. “I’m taking the negative, adding magic and making fanciful, majestic, mythological, yet real.”

Mx. Oops will present excerpts from the work Carrying Capacity. Mixing elements of Vogue, Capoeira, and Yoga, Carrying Capacity is a dynamic exploration of embodiment. Mx. Oops tries on sometimes divergent ways of being to clumsily see which might fit. Sudden shifts from intimate, quiet moments to loud, erratic passages illuminate both questions of authenticity and mental health. A collage of personal experiences embrace confusion, defining terrains of shame and pleasure.

Mx. Oops, a transhuman, gender-bending, genre-bending, urban arts shaman is performed by Wendell Cooper. Founder of Complex Stability, Cooper creates interdisciplinary work with a focus on the intersection of urban arts and consciousness studies. Carrying Capacity premiered at The American Realness Festival in NYC in January 2017.

For further information and optional seat reservation, visit TridentGallery.com or call the gallery at 978-491-7785.