Danny Welsh - Performance Art / Theatrical Mime

Artist Name: Danny Welsh

Performance Category: Performance Art / Theatrical Mime

Artist Bio: Melodramatic costume, theatrical make-up, unsupervised play, and my imagination have always functioned as utopic getaways from the social body I have performed my whole life. In 2001, the seven-year-old I knew as Daniel undoubtedly understood the consequence of deviance. Born and raised in Markham, Ontario, Canada, the masking of my identity was a daily occurrence. I found myself concealing myself only to reveal an exteriority of what I thought normalized boyhood looked like. My entire demeanor would change; my interests, behavior, and vocabulary were entirely contrived. I found myself making things and transforming my exteriority as a way of affirming myself and actualizing ideas. I self-employed my methods of actualization and implemented them as catalysts for creation. My work begins with a yearning to alter my appearance. My performances have the potential to both distort and amplify my identity. For me, performance is a form of catharsis; the wearing of a sculptural costume allows me as the performer to embody a persona providing me the permission to behave uninhibitedly. This personified embodiment exists as a form of intuitive roleplay resulting in the fusion of inner fantasy and external reality. I use my own body during performance as a way of provoking conversations around identity, selfhood, and the performativity of gender expression. Adopting aesthetics of modern mime performance, The White Tiger Mime (2020) is a performance where I enact a transformation of becoming a modern-day mime. Yet, my transformation is far from traditional… The performance begins with me sitting at a vanity. I sit gazing at my mirrored reflection. Within the performance space is the sound of a playlist of songs I have curated. The playlist heard within the performance space exists as a repurposed selection; a collection of lyrics and songs performed and written by LGBTQ2+ affiliated artists, musicians, and allies. This playlist acts as a form of loose narrative. Evocative of the shapeshifting nature of my identity, the mood and pace of this playlist is in a state of fluctuation. I emote these multiple moods and paces during performance. I embody them gesturally through improvised facial and bodily choreography. I gesture towards, perform, and transform for my mirrored self. I start by applying a base coat of white face paint onto my face, reminiscent of the makeup worn by a modern mime. I continue this face painting process, slowly adding more detail to my face. I modify and warp the appearance of modern mime makeup by adding additional black lines and markings to my face. My gestures and markmaking techniques become more stylized and intricate. I start to paint the façade of a white Bengal tiger onto my face. Slowly, I observe as my face becomes zoomorphized. When the face painting process is complete, I stare at my mutated mirrored reflection. Then, I begin to change into costume. At this point, a distinct shift takes place. Now masked, it is at this moment where I turn around and face the viewers. This shift allows for the delineating space in-between private and public performance to be exposed and blurred. Through looking back at the viewer, I make it clear that I have been aware of their presence the whole time. Dressed in my full zoomorphic ensemble, I melodramatically mime along to the music. Standing upon a stage, I self-reflexively poke fun at the ridiculousness of my relationship to the viewers. Here, the song lyrics are used for their communicative power. My facial expressions and bodily movements challenge, complicate, and contradict the phrases within the lyrics. Through mime, I modify the meaning and significances of these phrases. These moments of modification position me in the roles of the storyteller and conductor. This positioning permits me to convey complicated inner narratives that can only be conjured when positioned in such roles.