{"id":14792,"date":"2025-07-25T01:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.instantsvideo.com\/blog\/video\/potbelly\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T19:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:52:15","slug":"potbelly","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/www.instantsvideo.com\/blog\/video\/potbelly\/","title":{"rendered":"Potbelly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Potbelly est un essai vid\u00e9o bas\u00e9 sur la performance qui d\u00e9construit la sc\u00e8ne du motel de Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994), dans laquelle Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), la coquette et bavarde b\u00e9b\u00e9, explique \u00e0 son petit ami Butch (Bruce Willis) qu’elle aimerait avoir un ventre rond. Dans cet essai vid\u00e9o, je place mon corps en relation avec cette sc\u00e8ne pour r\u00e9pondre aux repr\u00e9sentations tarantinoiennes du d\u00e9sir ci-h\u00e9t\u00e9ronormatif, bas\u00e9 sur les standards de beaut\u00e9 occidentaux de minceur, de jeunesse, de non-handicap et de blancheur. Je me place dans le cadre de cet essai vid\u00e9o sans t\u00eate pour mettre en valeur mon torse et incarner le \u00ab Headless Fatty \u00bb, un ph\u00e9nom\u00e8ne que la militante ob\u00e8se Charlotte Cooper d\u00e9crit comme \u00ab un d\u00e9fil\u00e9 incessant \u00bb de personnes ob\u00e8ses dont les photos sont reprises dans le journalisme en ligne, qui \u00ab respire une culture de surveillance \u00bb, impr\u00e9gn\u00e9e de jugement, de grossophobie et de critiques. Cooper soutient que pour les gros sans t\u00eate, \u00ab le corps devient symbolique : nous sommes l\u00e0 mais nous n\u2019avons pas de voix \u00bb et \u00ab nous sommes r\u00e9duits et d\u00e9shumanis\u00e9s en tant que symboles de la peur culturelle : le corps, le ventre, le cul, la nourriture. \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potbelly is a performance-based video essay that deconstructs the motel scene in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) in which the coquettish baby talking Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) describes to her boyfriend Butch (Bruce Willis) how she wishes she had a potbelly. In this video essay, I place my body in relation to this scene to speak back to Tarantino\u2019s representations of cisheteronormative desire that depends on Western beauty standards of thinness, youth, non-disability, and whiteness. I position myself in the frame of this video essay without a head to focus on and amplify my torso and enact the \u201cHeadless Fatty,\u201d a phenomenon fat activist Charlotte Cooper describes as \u201ca never-ending parade\u201d of fat people whose photographs are featured in internet journalism that \u201creek of a surveillance culture\u201d full of judgement, fatphobia, and criticism. Cooper argues that for headless fatties, \u201cthe body becomes symbolic: we are there but we have no voice\u201d and \u201care reduced and dehumanised as symbols of cultural fear: the body, the belly, the arse, food.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dayna McLeod<\/strong> : Je suis une artiste m\u00e9diatique queer d’\u00e2ge m\u00fbr, bas\u00e9e sur la performance. Je suis une Canadienne colone qui vit \u00e0 Tiohti\u00e1:ke\/Montr\u00e9al\/Montr\u00e9al depuis plus de 20 ans. Mon travail utilise l’humour et capitalise sur l’exploitation des conditions sociales et mat\u00e9rielles du corps \u00e0 travers des pratiques de cabaret, de dur\u00e9e, de remix, de vid\u00e9o et d’installation. Mes recherches artistiques et th\u00e9oriques portent sur les repr\u00e9sentations m\u00e9diatiques de la sexualit\u00e9, l’identit\u00e9 queer et la fa\u00e7on dont les corps marqu\u00e9s comme f\u00e9minins sont per\u00e7us comme un bien public. Je m’int\u00e9resse \u00e9galement \u00e0 la fa\u00e7on dont ces modes de repr\u00e9sentation recoupent la quarantaine, car c’est l\u00e0 o\u00f9 j’en suis dans mon parcours de vie. J’ai plus de 30 vid\u00e9os monocanales en distribution, qui ont cumul\u00e9 des centaines de projections dans le monde entier, et j’ai mis en sc\u00e8ne plus de trois douzaines d’\u0153uvres de performance et de cabarets ind\u00e9pendants, \u00e0 l’\u00e9chelle locale, nationale et internationale. Mon travail a \u00e9t\u00e9 pr\u00e9sent\u00e9 au Summerworks Theatre Festival \u00e0 Toronto, au Tang Teaching Museum \u00e0 Saratoga Springs, au Abrons Art Center \u00e0 New York, aux Rendez-vous du cin\u00e9ma qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al, au Impakt Festival \u00e0 Utrecht aux Pays-Bas, au Mardi Gras Festival \u00e0 Darlinghurst en Australie, au MIX Brasil Festival Of Sexual Diversity \u00e0 S\u00e3o Paulo au Br\u00e9sil, au Modern Art Museum \u00e0 Varsovie en Pologne, au City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts \u00e0 Ljubljana en Slov\u00e9nie et au Centre d\u2019art contemporain \u00e0 Paris. J\u2019ai re\u00e7u des fonds de recherche et d\u00e9veloppement, de production et de voyage du Conseil des arts du Canada et du Conseil des arts et des lettres du Qu\u00e9bec. J’ai remport\u00e9 de nombreux prix, dont le Prix Powerhouse de La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse en 2014, qui c\u00e9l\u00e8bre les femmes artistes en milieu de carri\u00e8re qui ont contribu\u00e9 de mani\u00e8re significative \u00e0 la vie culturelle de Montr\u00e9al, divers prix du public dans des festivals de cin\u00e9ma et de vid\u00e9o comme le Prix du public dans la cat\u00e9gorie Exp\u00e9rimental \u00e0 Cineffable, le Festival International du film Lesbien et F\u00e9ministe de Paris en 2019, et des mentions pour le meilleur essai vid\u00e9o du British Film Institute en 2024, 2023, 2022 et 2021. Je suis actuellement boursi\u00e8re postdoctorale du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (CRSH) (2023-2025) et ancienne boursi\u00e8re postdoctorale en recherche-cr\u00e9ation du Fonds de recherche du Qu\u00e9bec \u2013 Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 et culture (2021-2023). J’ai obtenu un doctorat du Centre d’\u00e9tudes interdisciplinaires sur la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 et la culture de l’Universit\u00e9 Concordia en 2020, qui combinait des \u00e9tudes en art de la performance, en f\u00e9minisme, en th\u00e9orie queer, en \u00e2ge et en recherche-cr\u00e9ation, et qui a centr\u00e9 ma pratique artistique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayna McLeod<\/strong> : I am a middle-aging queer performance-based media artist. I am a Settler Canadian who has lived in Tiohti\u00e1:ke\/Montr\u00e9al\/Montreal for the past 20+ years. My work uses humour, and capitalizes on exploiting the body\u2019s social and material conditions using cabaret, duration, remix, video, and installation practices. My artistic and theoretical research interests are in media representations of sexuality, queer identity, and how bodies marked female are perceived as public property. I am also interested in how these modes of representation intersect with middle-aging, since this is where I\u2019m at in my life course. I have more than 30 single channel videos in distribution, which have screened worldwide hundreds of times accumulatively, and I have staged over 3-dozen independent performance art works and cabarets, locally, nationally, and internationally. My work has been presented at the Summerworks Theatre Festival in Toronto, the Tang Teaching Museum in Saratoga Springs, the Abrons Art Center in NYC, Les Rendez-vous du cin\u00e9ma qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois in Montreal, the Impakt Festival in Utrecht Netherlands, the Mardi Gras Festival in Darlinghurst Australia, MIX Brasil Festival Of Sexual Diversity in S\u00e3o Paulo Brazil, the Modern Art Museum in Warsaw Poland, the City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts in Ljubljana Slovenija, and Le Centre d\u2019art contemporain in Paris.\u00a0I have received research and development, production, and travel funding from the Canada Council and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Qu\u00e9bec.\u00a0I have won numerous awards, including Le Prix Powerhouse from La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse in 2014 that celebrates mid-career women artists who have significantly contributed to the cultural life of Montr\u00e9al, various Audience Choice Awards at film and video festivals like the Prix du Public in the Experimental category at Cineffable, Festival International du film Lesbian et Feminist de Paris in 2019, and Best Video Essay mentions from the British Film Institute in 2024<\/a>, 2023<\/a>, 2022<\/a>, and 2021<\/a>. I am a current Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow (2023-2025), and past Fonds de recherche du Qu\u00e9bec \u2013 Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 et culture research-creation postdoctoral fellow (2021-2023). I earned a PhD from the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University in 2020 that combined studies in performance art, feminism, queer theory, age, and research-creation, and centred my art practice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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