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Marbella Carlos has exhibited work in venues such as YTB Gallery (Toronto), Gallery Gachet (Vancouver), The New Gallery (Calgary), Yukon Arts Centre (Whitehorse) and more, and has participated in residencies with Artscape Toronto and Calgary Allied Arts Foundation. Most recently, her work has focused on using burlesque as a medium to exercise control over one’s body and sexuality.
She performs burlesque under the moniker Joy Rider and, along with regular performances at Montreal’s Wiggle Room, has had feature performances at the Ottawa International Burlesque Festival, as a guest at the Montreal Fringe, and as a main stage performer at Fierté/Pride Montreal 2019. She recently won the prestigious Bunny Competition at the Edmonton International Burlesque Festival, an international competition for performers with under 2 years of burlesque experience.
“Engaging in satirical, striptease performance invites a shift from a socially acceptable expression of femininity, one that exists within a patriarchal culture which expects the feminine to be demure, submissive or chaste, to one that is subversive and even pleasurable. By reclaiming ownership of the body and its sensuality, burlesque affords me the opportunity to create captivating comedic vignettes of performance art, while interrogating issues such as the complexity of acculturation as immigrant settlers living in the diaspora.”