Epicenter Revolutions

Internal Transformation and Resistance in Non-Binary and Transgender Durational Performances

A collaborative, community-based research project that aims to create spaces in which transgender and non-binary people can experience the personal and political impact of internal transformations within durational performance art.

Epicenter Revolutions, created by Concordia University Ph.D. candidate Holly Timpener, investigates internal transformations in non-binary and transgender performance art. Participants in this project examine how felt internal transformations occurring through durational action(s) support transgender and non-binary identity formation and act as a form of political resistance. Transgender and non-binary bodies simply occupying space is an act of resistance towards gendernormative ideals in which everyday, lived experiences guide the construction of identity and community in public and counterpublic spaces. Timpener's performance-as-research project illustrates how transgender and non-binary bodies engage in durational performative action to listen, activate, and understand personal and political affects of their lived experience. This research insists that the acknowledgment and engagement of microchanges felt by transgender and non-binary people create resistance to oppression, heteronormativity, and gender binaries, ultimately creating systematic change, social justice, and united spaces where non-normative identities can flourish.