My practice presents a visceral engagement with the body as a vehicle for rigour, discipline, control and pain. It explores themes of identity, scrutiny of the body, bringing with it preoccupations with weight, skin colour and idealization. My performance and video practice often invites my own compulsions into my work thus, the pieces are always inscribed with my own experience. This work is informed by my 1.5 generation immigrant experience living as a Filipina-Canadian woman.

Through my professional work with the National Eating Disorder Information Centre and Kapisanan Centre for Arts and Culture, I am constantly working to criticize ideals of beauty. This work allows me to explore the roles of identity, culture, oppression and race in determining one’s self-worth, – esteem and – perception.

My research during luminous bodies will culminate in the completion and exhibiting of a dynamic video installation piece that reveals a series of performance-driven video clips. The work will present an unpacking of the experience and struggle of occupying the body of a Filipina woman. This work will respond to the exotification of the Asian female body, dissecting a lifetime’s worth of yearning to see oneself and one’s culture reflected in the music, movies, television and magazines consumed by Westerners while exploring the presence of shade-ism, racism, other-ing and their impact on identity.

~~~

Marbella Carlos is a visual artist and educator whose practice in performance, video and installation explores themes of identity and intimacy. Marbella holds a BFA (With Distinction) from the University of Calgary a BEdrom OISE- University of Toronto. She is currently the Outreach and Education Coordinator for the National Eating Disorder Information Centre and the CLUTCH Program Coordinator at Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture.