DELILAH JUKEBOX

DELILAH JUKEBOX (aka DJ) toys with the notion of loops, repetition, and dichotomy like the A-B sides of a vinyl record. Delilah is not just a woman, she is the embodiment and projection of fear and fantasy; her name conjures diverse images and prejudices of the lover, the traitor, the fallen woman, the temptress, the patriot, and the vengeful, etc. Through a series of repetitions of Delilah’s aria “Printemps qui commence” (from the opera Samson et Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns) in a series of domestic spaces, male mezzo Stephen Chen explores the representation of the feminine by deconstructing and re-imagining Delilah. Dichotomies are heightened in the splitting of the female voice and the female body. Each iteration of Delilah’s aria situates itself in a different scenario and problematic. These scenarios span from degradation to empowerment and construct new narratives that disrupt those prior as well as expectations of desire and phobia on the strength and weakness of the feminine in its potential emasculation of power and authority. DELILAH JUKEBOX is bookended by ANCESTRIES.