Noble Beast, 2023

Art Haus Collective presented Noble Beast at NOSOTRES, a new work by artists Simón Malvaez and Brenden Darby, which was a monument to the ancient history of the queer community. Standing at 50’ tall with depictions of nonbinary faces and Mictlān, this evolution of their 2022 Burning Man Piece, THEM, serves as a reminder that queer people have been here since the beginning of time. 
 

“Queerness represents our past, present and future and we honor the many deaths of our past selves that help us move forward.” 

-Malvaez/Darby

 

Malvaez/Darby’s work is inspired by the Aztec myth of the deity Quetzalcoatl’s journey through the nine layers of the Realm of Death to Mictlán. In Noble Beast, the full cast began in the “default world”, accompanied by Anna Meredith Nautilus . The protagonist experiences a death at the end of the first section, caused by an increasingly rapid movement through the routines of life (performed by the full cast of dancers). The protagonist moved through the nine layers of the Realm of Death to Mictlán accompanied by Nicole Lizée’s Bookburners. These layers, which include the “land of the dogs” and “the place with no gravity,” was explored by dancers, until the protagonist ultimately shed the world they’ve left behind for a transcendent culmination set to Max Richter’s Spring.

 

Program
Overture - Anna Clyne "Masquerade"

Here and Now - Anna Meredith 'Nautilus" 
The Journey - Nicole Lizee 'Bookburners' 
And Then - Richter 'Four Seasons" Spring 1