Sonic Womb: Our Fêtes
PES Futures, April 2025
Nowhere does gender stretch, dissolve, and slip like on the dance floors of queer clubs and ballrooms. “A sanctuary for queer liberation,” as asserted by Sable Elyse Smith in their literary work Ecstatic Resilience, the club – in all its damp, thumping, exuberance – is a site of freedom for those who have the audacity to exist.
Borrowing from the auditory and speculative genius of Detroit techno pioneers, James Stinson and Gerald Donald, Sonic Womb seeks to replicate the subterranean refuge of both the mythological underwater kingdom of Drexciya and the underground clubs originating in 1970’s New York City within two site-specific installations by artists Billy and Jesús Hillario-Reyes.Through interview documentation, ink drawing, floor projection and paper sculpture Billy’s presentation, entitled Our Fêtes, draws on Disco Ball Theory - the bending and refracting of time and memory - while examining how various members of the vogue and ballroom scenes interact with and express their gender identity. His sumi ink drawings stretch across the walls expressing emotive, and reactive sweeping gestures of movement that electrify the space encircling the testimonials of the show’s current participants Taylor Alexis Smith, Jacquelyn Batten, Riley Marc Jacobs, NYC Prince Evan Versace, Lamaj Dumure-Versailles, and Legendary Yummy Lanvin.
