Who put the gold in the Golden Age? Bride of the White Widow, a multimedia event by performance art collective My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade), playfully—and critically—wrestles with this question in a surreal, post-colonial tale about the doomed crew of the White Widow, seventeenth-century Dutch sailors lost in the so-called New World. A show within a show, Bride of the White Widow is an interactive play, exploring contemporary issues of cultural appropriation, globalism, and environmental collapse through song, dance, and games with the audience. A restaging of My Barbarian’s Voyage of the White Widow, originally commissioned by De Appel, Amsterdam, in 2006, and included in Performa 02 at the Whitney Museum, New York, the performance at The Light Box in Miami explores My Barbarian’s sixteen-year journey as a performance collective.
Working at the intersection of visual art, theater, and critical practice, My Barbarian uses performance to theatricalize social problems and imagine ways of being together. Founded in Los Angeles in 2000, the group’s work moves through different modes that prepare for, present, and represent live performance: music composition, plays, and other texts; costumes, masks, puppets and sets; video; and drawings and prints. The group has performed and exhibited widely while maintaining a focus on the provocation of theatricality in the visual-art context. My Barbarian has been included in the Whitney Biennial, two Performa Biennials, two California Biennials, the Montreal Biennial, and the Baltic Triennial.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow is part of Living Together, curated by Rina Carvajal, MOAD’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, and independent curator Joseph R. Wolin. Living Together is made possible by the generous support of Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
My Barbarian: Bride of the White Widow, Miami Light Project at The Light Box, January 20, 2018. Photo by Oriol Tarridas. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.