Artist Silen Wellington (S. Wellington/ Facebook)
This Sunday, Sept. 15, artist Silen Wellington will perform their one-person show, Body Like Scripture, a combination of “Queer/Trans performance art, electroacoustic music, spoken word and ritual.” The performance will take place at the Wesley Foundation in Boulder at 7:30 p.m.
Wellington currently lives in Boulder, and graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with degrees in music composition and psychology. They describe themselves as a composer, performance artist and poet and according to their website, the performance is “both a prayer and an assertion.”
Wellington incorporates their first performance art piece, entitled when my body becomes the art, into Body Like Scripture as a “homage to (their) artistic journey.”
“I use recordings of my voice since going on testosterone, tracking my lowering voice and describing my gender journey,” Wellington said. “When I perform the piece, I try on different gender expressions, rip up the letter I had to get from a therapist, take off my binder, cast a circle and end the piece with a live intramuscular injection of testosterone.”
Sunday will be Wellington’s first full-length show.
“Preparing for the show has been quite a whirlwind,” Wellington said. “I’ve been jumping from being the producer, bookkeeper, advertiser, to composer and performance artist. I’m feeling nervous, of course, but also excited to have an audience and feel how each piece shifts for me while having the reflection of witnesses.”
Shruti Kaul, an artist from Boulder, will be doing videography for the show. A Fort Collins-based artist, Saskia Becker, will be doing installation art.
The show will be 80 minutes without intermission. Tickets for the Boulder show are $10 and $15 at the door. More information about the show and tickets can be found on Wellington’s website. Those who want to support Wellington’s show can donate to their GoFundMe.
Contact CU Independent Senior News Editor Anna Haynes at anna.haynes@colorado.edu
