Ophelio | Irish Artist's Film Index

Ophelio

Day Magee


View this work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eElr7vDYsBE

Artist's biography

Day Magee

Contributors

Day Magee - Director & Performer
Brid Murphy - Camera Operator

Synopsis

The artist performs to camera reclining in a river, inhabiting a masculinised role of Shakespeare's iconic character Ophelia.

Concept & Technique

“Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads And recks not his own rede.” -Ophelia, ‘Hamlet’, W. Shakespeare Historically, the queer’s self-actualisation is dogged by pathology at the hands of heteronormativity, its associations rooted in abjection, these artefacts embodying themselves sexually via internalised homophobia in self-fulfilling prophecies. Self-destruction characterises many a queer’s road to their self-reconciliation, if indeed that end be ultimately met at all. Inspired by the analyses of queer theorists Leo Bersani, David M. Halperin, and Tim Dean of the death drive’s exhibition in queer sexual praxes, the artist here reinterprets the Shakespearean role of Ophelia, Hamlet’s lover who ultimately took her own life, through a contemporary lens of gender and sexuality in video portraiture.

Screenings

2019 - OUTLines at One Art Space, Manhattan
2019 - Diffraction at 126 Gallery, Galway
Details
Title

Ophelio

Year

2019

Key phrases

queer theory, queer performance art, performance to camera, Irish performance

Language

English

Duration

00:06:00 (looped)

Original formats

Digital 4k

Screening formats

Digital 4K

Aspect ratio

16:9

Colour

Black & White

Sound

Yes

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, the Arts Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.
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