Charlay Bboots Presents...the work of Kelley a. Meister, 2007-2008

In these performances, I have been using the academic setting of a lecture to explore how the Queer body fits and distorts the institutional structure. The character Charlay Bboots serves as a voice through which I show my work, but also as a subject of the work. Charlay adopts the language, codes, and standards of the institution in order to deconstruct our placement within the structure while also maintaining an intentionally ambiguous or even confusing gender identity. In adopting such academically imposed structures like academic language, Charlay helps to bring awareness to the ways in which language is used within this setting, specifically as a tool of control and power.