This piece was one of Otalvaro-Hormillosa's first experiments with performance. It consists of the first version of "Address to the Academy," which was later incorporated into her first full length show, "Memory and White Love." The rest of the performance involves choreographed movements and sound as well as "Devil Bunny in Bondage," a story/performance about mixed race identity, inspired by a short story about rabbits, blood and absurd constructs about femininity, by a modern Japanese woman writer, Kanei Mieko. The piece was performed at Brown and during her semester abroad in 1997 at the School of Oriental and African Studies/University of London, at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Glass House and Cyberia.

Photo Credit: Scott Chernis

Where did the Devil Bunny in Bondage originate?

You might be wondering, "How did the bunny become a devil in bondage?" Or, if you look at it another way, "How did the devil become a bunny in bondage?" Well, if you didn't already know, devils and bunnies have many things in common! Really, they are just metaphors for the ideas that certain members of the heteropatriarchal racist tribe of planet earth decided to associate with "femininity" in order to hide the truth of the power and beauty that lies within genuine, fierce, untamed, creative and erotic womanhood. HIStorically, women have been thought to be witches, bitches, or whores ("Lions! and tigers! and bears! Oh my!) if they chose to live outside of the box; hence, the devil. If not devils, women have been associated with the subservient, passive (or on the other extreme, oversexed), perpetually reproducing energy of the bunny. Now, what does bondage have to do with all of this? Could it be freedom, or lack thereof? S & M and stereotypical images of perverted pedophilic queers, or rather, the deconstruction or reappropriation of such stereotypes? Colonial domination and the genocide and rape experienced by women from tribes all over the world? Well, ladies and gentlemen, bondage can mean all of this and more! Devil Bunny in Bondage encompasses multiple, seemingly contradictory concepts for you to explore, reappropriate and celebrate! Remember, a double negative can equal a positive!