lucy burns | University of California, Los Angeles (original) (raw)

Papers by lucy burns

Theatre Journal, 2008

The first National Asian American Theater Festival’s broad spectrum of productions illustrated As... more The first National Asian American Theater Festival’s broad spectrum of productions illustrated Asian American theatre and performance’s continued vitality. Aided by Asian American theatres around the country, the New York–based companies of Ma-Yi Theater, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre brought together works that diverged greatly, yet also demonstrated some common purpose and design.

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2011

In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively in... more In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively interpreted by diasporic artists as a dense metaphor for the proper and improper Filipina. These artistic deployments of the terno lay bare unquestioned notions of Filipina femininity and nationalism to be fabrications of colonialism, militarization and globalization. The reconfigurations of the infamous ''butterfly dress'' by multimedia artist groups Barrionics and Mail Order Brides (M.O.B.) take center stage in my discussion. The genealogy of the terno I focus on in this article emphasizes alteration and transformation, to resist facile binaries of the nation as traditional and the diaspora as the site of modern and innovative modifications. My historicization of the terno underscores it as an emergent form in which to situate the uses of the terno in Filipino American performance projects within the history of the terno itself. Specifically, the essay focuses on the defamiliarization of feminine constructs that operate both in the nation and the diaspora, as well as to foreground the imbrications of colonial histories and our neocolonial present in the current global circulation of Filipina bodies. I highlight how these artists in the Filipino diaspora spectacularize the inchoateness of categories of gender, race and sexuality. Their performance works delink the dressee from the dress, the terno from the Filipina, the dress from the girl and the boy, the dress from the straight and from the queer, the dress from the diasporic and from the national. Within such figurations, the terno emerges as an overprivileged icon-of ideal womanhood and of the mother nationwhose iconicity is rerouted through bodies that do not belong. Keywords: Filipino American performance; fashion and national costume; dressing ''We call it butterfly dress because after independence from the US in 1947, Filipino women could really fly.''-Paola Isabella Rocha Tornito, Puerto Rican-Filipina ''socialite'' 1 ''Dresses are props in racialized constructions of identities.''-Laura Pere´z, ''Writing on the Social Body: Dresses and Body Ornamentation in Contemporary Chicana Art''

Introduction to monograph: Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of US Empire. Link for the whole bo... more Introduction to monograph: Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of US Empire. Link for the whole book: http://nyupress.org/books/9780814725450/

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Filipino men patronized the popular American social institution of ... more In the 1920s and early 1930s, Filipino men patronized the popular American social institution of the taxi dancehalls, comprising nearly one quarter of the taxi dancehall patrons in major cities such as Detroit and Los Angeles (see Cressey 1932). Taxi dancehalls were at the height of their popularity during this period, often serving as a key site of sociality amongst and between immigrants.

In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively in... more In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively interpreted by diasporic artists as a dense metaphor for the proper and improper Filipina. These artistic deployments of the terno lay bare unquestioned notions of Filipina femininity and nationalism to be fabrications of colonialism, militarization and globalization. The reconfigurations
of the infamous ‘‘butterfly dress’’ by multimedia artist groups
Barrionics and Mail Order Brides (M.O.B.) take center stage in my
discussion. The genealogy of the terno I focus on in this article emphasizes alteration and transformation, to resist facile binaries of the nation as traditional and the diaspora as the site of modern and innovative modifications. My historicization of the terno underscores it as an emergent form in which to situate the uses of the terno in Filipino American performance projects within the history of the terno itself. Specifically, the essay focuses on the defamiliarization of feminine constructs that operate both in the nation and the diaspora, as well as to foreground the imbrications of colonial histories and our neocolonial present in the current
global circulation of Filipina bodies. I highlight how these artists in the Filipino diaspora spectacularize the inchoateness of categories of gender, race and sexuality. Their performance works delink the dressee from the dress, the terno from the Filipina, the dress from the girl and the boy, the dress from the straight and from the queer, the dress from the diasporic and from the national. Within such figurations, the terno emerges as
an overprivileged icon – of ideal womanhood and of the mother nation – whose iconicity is re-routed through bodies that do not belong.

Theatre Journal, 2008

The first National Asian American Theater Festival’s broad spectrum of productions illustrated As... more The first National Asian American Theater Festival’s broad spectrum of productions illustrated Asian American theatre and performance’s continued vitality. Aided by Asian American theatres around the country, the New York–based companies of Ma-Yi Theater, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre brought together works that diverged greatly, yet also demonstrated some common purpose and design.

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2011

In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively in... more In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively interpreted by diasporic artists as a dense metaphor for the proper and improper Filipina. These artistic deployments of the terno lay bare unquestioned notions of Filipina femininity and nationalism to be fabrications of colonialism, militarization and globalization. The reconfigurations of the infamous ''butterfly dress'' by multimedia artist groups Barrionics and Mail Order Brides (M.O.B.) take center stage in my discussion. The genealogy of the terno I focus on in this article emphasizes alteration and transformation, to resist facile binaries of the nation as traditional and the diaspora as the site of modern and innovative modifications. My historicization of the terno underscores it as an emergent form in which to situate the uses of the terno in Filipino American performance projects within the history of the terno itself. Specifically, the essay focuses on the defamiliarization of feminine constructs that operate both in the nation and the diaspora, as well as to foreground the imbrications of colonial histories and our neocolonial present in the current global circulation of Filipina bodies. I highlight how these artists in the Filipino diaspora spectacularize the inchoateness of categories of gender, race and sexuality. Their performance works delink the dressee from the dress, the terno from the Filipina, the dress from the girl and the boy, the dress from the straight and from the queer, the dress from the diasporic and from the national. Within such figurations, the terno emerges as an overprivileged icon-of ideal womanhood and of the mother nationwhose iconicity is rerouted through bodies that do not belong. Keywords: Filipino American performance; fashion and national costume; dressing ''We call it butterfly dress because after independence from the US in 1947, Filipino women could really fly.''-Paola Isabella Rocha Tornito, Puerto Rican-Filipina ''socialite'' 1 ''Dresses are props in racialized constructions of identities.''-Laura Pere´z, ''Writing on the Social Body: Dresses and Body Ornamentation in Contemporary Chicana Art''

Introduction to monograph: Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of US Empire. Link for the whole bo... more Introduction to monograph: Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of US Empire. Link for the whole book: http://nyupress.org/books/9780814725450/

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Filipino men patronized the popular American social institution of ... more In the 1920s and early 1930s, Filipino men patronized the popular American social institution of the taxi dancehalls, comprising nearly one quarter of the taxi dancehall patrons in major cities such as Detroit and Los Angeles (see Cressey 1932). Taxi dancehalls were at the height of their popularity during this period, often serving as a key site of sociality amongst and between immigrants.

In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively in... more In this essay, I explore the semiotics of the terno, the Philippine national dress, creatively interpreted by diasporic artists as a dense metaphor for the proper and improper Filipina. These artistic deployments of the terno lay bare unquestioned notions of Filipina femininity and nationalism to be fabrications of colonialism, militarization and globalization. The reconfigurations
of the infamous ‘‘butterfly dress’’ by multimedia artist groups
Barrionics and Mail Order Brides (M.O.B.) take center stage in my
discussion. The genealogy of the terno I focus on in this article emphasizes alteration and transformation, to resist facile binaries of the nation as traditional and the diaspora as the site of modern and innovative modifications. My historicization of the terno underscores it as an emergent form in which to situate the uses of the terno in Filipino American performance projects within the history of the terno itself. Specifically, the essay focuses on the defamiliarization of feminine constructs that operate both in the nation and the diaspora, as well as to foreground the imbrications of colonial histories and our neocolonial present in the current
global circulation of Filipina bodies. I highlight how these artists in the Filipino diaspora spectacularize the inchoateness of categories of gender, race and sexuality. Their performance works delink the dressee from the dress, the terno from the Filipina, the dress from the girl and the boy, the dress from the straight and from the queer, the dress from the diasporic and from the national. Within such figurations, the terno emerges as
an overprivileged icon – of ideal womanhood and of the mother nation – whose iconicity is re-routed through bodies that do not belong.