2boys.tv (Stephen Lawson and Aaron Pollard) are a Canadian art duo based in Montreal, Quebec, active since 2001. Lawson graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada, and Pollard from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design and Concordia University. Lawson and Pollard are also known both as Gigi L'Amour and Pipi Douleur. The team and real-life couple work in video-supplemented performance, video, and installation and have presented in arts and queer spaces across the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and New Zealand. The duo is known for its extravagant and intense stage spectacles. [1]
Performance studies scholar Peter Dickinson notes that their performance work "supplements a camp aesthetic derived from drag with sophisticated video projections, original and found sound scores, the art of lip-synch and object-oriented and site-based installation (...)". [2] 2boys.tv is interested in the plasticity of video, often using it in a sculptural way instead of as a large screen. [3]
The name 2boys.tv resulted from looking for a web domain name for the project. "(...) We came across this .tv which both references transvestism and transversalism," the duo told The New York Times in a 2011 interview. "But it's actually the domain of the small island in the South Pacific called Tuvalu. The country sold off its domain name to raise money because it's sinking due to global warming. And, of course, we're two boys." [3]
Lawson, Stephen. "Emcee Etiquettes: Experts Weigh In on How to Host the Perfect Cabaret Night." Canadian Theatre Review , vol. 177, 2019, p. 67-72.
Pollard, Aaron and Stephen Lawson. "Bonus Insert." Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 150, 2012, p. 1-17.
Pollard, Aaron and Stephen Lawson. "Tightrope, Translation and Transformation." Performance Research , vol. 21:5, 2016, p. 131-133.
They are recipients of the 2009 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for outstanding achievement by mid-career artists working in the Interdisciplinary Arts, Canada Council for the Arts. [4]
Puppetry of the Penis is a comedic live performance-art show featuring a series of genital contortions. The show was initially conceived as the title of a highbrow art calendar released by Australian Simon Morley in 1996. The calendar showcased twelve penis "installations". In response to increasing requests for live demonstrations, in 1997 Morley enlisted fellow Australian, David "Friendy" Friend, to devise a performance show consisting of body-based genital comedy.
Sir Isaac Julien is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is a Canadian professional theatre company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, and founded in 1978 by Matt Walsh, Jerry Ciccoritti, and Sky Gilbert, Buddies in Bad Times is dedicated to "the promotion of queer theatrical expression". It's the largest and longest-running queer theatre company in the world.
d’bi.young anitafrika is a Jamaican-Canadian feminist dub poet, activist, and singer for the band D’bi and the 333. Their work includes theatrical performances, four published collections of poetry, twelve plays, and seven albums.
André Éric Létourneau is a French Canadian media and transmedia artist, researcher, author, musician, composer, curator and professor based primarily in Montreal and Saint-Alponse-Rodriguez, Québec, Canada. He uses several pseudonyms, most notably Benjamin Muon and algojo)(algojo. His work has been associated with the development of performance art, radio art, process art, sound poetry and experimental music. Since the 1980s, Létourneau has presented intermedia works in international performance art festivals, galleries and museums such as the Walter Phillips Gallery at the Banff Centre, The James H.W. Thompson Foundation in Bangkok and at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum. In 2006, he was one of the artists selected to represent Canada at the XVth Biennale de Paris under a pseudonym. Since 2012, Létourneau has also contributed to the Biennale des Arts d'Afrique de l'est in Bujumbura, the InterAzioni festival in Italy, the Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Austria, Festival Phénomena in Montreal, Grace Exhibition Space, and The Emily Harvey Foundation in New York.
Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard are British artists and filmmakers.
The Edgy Women Festival was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ran for 23 years from 1994 to 2016. Presented by Studio 303, a dance and interdisciplinary-arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Edgy Women focuses on feminist perspectives with workshops and forums, performance events, and socializing. Studio 303's artistic and general manager Miriam Ginestier programmed Edgy Women from 1995 to 2014.
Alexis O'Hara is a Canadian transdisciplinary performer, born in Ottawa, Ontario, and currently living and working in Montreal, Quebec.
Keith Cole is a queer Canadian performance artist and political activist. Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, he is currently based in Toronto, Ontario. An alumnus of York University's Fine Arts program, Cole has worked in film and video, dance and theatre performance, both as himself and in character as drag queen Pepper Highway.
Geoffrey Farmer is best known for extensive multimedia installations made of cut-out images which form collages.
Zorras were a multimedia performance troupe based in Edinburgh, Scotland from 2007 to 2013. They emerged from the city's alternative poetry and music scenes in 2008, and performed at some of the most renowned international counterculture locations and events. Zorras were part of growing queer, LGBT, feminist and disabled/crip cultural movements in Scotland, and instrumental in raising awareness of disabled and D/deaf access in LGBTQ+ and arts communities. They created artworks that explored issues of language, sexuality, gender, race, class, mental health and disability.
Hysteria: A Festival of Women was a recurring arts festival in Toronto. It was founded in 2003 by Moynan King of the Buddies in Bad Times theatre company in collaboration with Nightwood Theatre.
Elizabeth M. "Beth" Stephens is an American filmmaker, artist, sculptor, photographer, professor and two time Chair of the Art Department at UC Santa Cruz. Stephens, who describes herself as "ecosexual", collaborates with her wife since 2002, ecosexual artist, radical sex educator, and performer Annie Sprinkle.
Annie Martin is a Canadian artist who works with installation, audio, video and textiles. Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally. Martin lives in Lethbridge, Alberta where she teaches at the University of Lethbridge. She previously lived and worked in Montreal.
Nik Forrest is a visual and media artist who lives in Montreal. Born in Edinburgh, their practice includes drawing, installation and sound art. They completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in 1985 and a master's degree in open media from Concordia University in 1995.
Dayna McLeod is a Montreal based performance artist and video artist whose work often includes topics of feminism, queer identity, and sexuality.
Nathalie Claude is a self-described "actress, director, dancer, choreographer, writer, and a sometimes MC, Drag King, clown, artistic coach and musician" from Montreal. She works in French and in English and sometimes creates bilingual performances.
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh is a Canadian recording engineer, producer, and musician.
Kama La Mackerel is a Mauritian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, activist, translator, and community organizer who resides in Montreal, Quebec. Their artistic practice moves between theatre, dance, spoken word and written poetry, watercolours, photography, performance, sculpture and installation. Working across multiple disciplines, La Mackerel's work explores their identity as a trans femme of colour who reaches back beyond the immediate constraints of the colonial circumstances of their life to the spiritual ancestral lineages of queer femmes.
Jake Elwes is a British media artist, hacker and researcher. Their practice is the exploration of artificial intelligence (AI), queer theory and technical biases. They are known for using AI to create art in mediums such as video, performance and installation. Elwes considers themselves to be neuroqueer, and their work on queering technology addresses issues caused by the normative biases of artificial intelligence.