An exhibition currently on display at a museum in Balboa Park centers the critical role women have played in the development and growth of the craft of photography from the mid-19th century to the present. Inspired by the exhibition and the women who have created images exploring themes of identity, representation, and the multiple and layered forms of femininity and womanhood, multidisciplinary artist Cami Arboles will provide a night of art and dance in celebration of their work.
“Women in Focus” is on display through July 13 at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art, taking from the SDMA’s permanent collection to share this history. “SDMA + Cami Arboles: The Body as the Frame,” features the Los Angeles-based artist in a live performance that combines dance, yoga, music, and a life-sized frame apparatus designed by architect Grant Longden as she uses her body to interpret the themes explored in the exhibition. Her performance is scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday at the MOPA . ission is $35 for and students, $45 for non.
Arboles is a graduate of Yale University, who went viral in 2020 when the pandemic moved her graduation ceremony online. She used her love of dance and movement to perform a pole dance in her cap and gown, sharing it on Instagram. That moment helped her figure out how to pivot amidst the uncertainty of the time—from studying biology, performance studies, and classical voice at the university to founding the Mind Body Spirit Collective, a global educational and community platform centered around movement, particularly for women, femmes, and non-binary people. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Q: You’re performing at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art on Saturday, inspired by the museum’s current exhibition, “Women in Focus,” which explores the role that women have played in the art and craft of photography since its invention in the 1830s. Why was this something you wanted to do?
A: I was inspired to pursue this opportunity because I resonate so deeply with the exhibition. My work as a dancer, primarily within the medium of pole dance, focuses heavily on the woman’s body, and viewing it as art. I also have created work as a film photographer myself, and consider myself an image-maker, so to be creating this piece for an exhibition that celebrates female photographers is so aligned.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about this performance? How would you describe it?
A: This piece will be a synthesis of my background as a classical singer and movement artist. The piece explores performance as a historical and ephemeral record of embodied human emotion through movement and opera singing. Here, the body is the frame, which holds the infinite gestural archives within movement, while highlighting the female form as both the subject and the lens; the image and the image-maker.
Q: Can you also talk about your creative process for this performance? How did you go about conceptualizing this piece?
A: It came quite naturally to me. I focused on my strengths as a performer—dancing and singing—and thought in ways to align these skills with the exhibition. I was largely inspired by the collection of work within the exhibition, and this idea of being both an image and an image-maker within a performance. There will be an actual life-sized frame I’ll be dancing and moving in as part of the performance, which I am very excited about.
Q: In what ways will we see you incorporate the “Women in Focus” exhibition into your performance?
A: The entire concept is designed to take place inside of a frame, as if it is a moving, breathing image itself. So, in that way, it is a life-sized unfolding of an image in performance. I primarily perform with a pole, but for this performance the apparatus will be a life-sized frame, something new and different for me.
Q: You’re the founder of the MBSC, the Mind Body Spirit Collective, offering movement programming that includes yoga, pole dancing, and flexibility workshops. What appealed to you about this form of creative expression?
A: I love the way that movement makes me feel, and the way that it makes others feel, as well. In an age of rapidly proliferating technological and digital expansion, one of the most important things we can do as individuals is to be present in our physical world, in our physical bodies. So, to have the body be a medium for art, whether movement or music, is important for me.
Q: Are there ways that practicing and performing in movement have taught you things about how you see yourself and your own body, particularly as a woman/femme?
A: Yeah, movement and performance have helped me to view my body as a medium for art. I am the art and the artist; I am my own muse.
Q: Particularly in social media spaces and comment sections, people can express some strong and negative views about the art of pole dancing, especially. What is your perspective on why pole dancing seems to elicit these kinds of comments? And, what that says to you about the way women and our bodies are seen and understood?
A: Pole dancing is an art that is not separate from stripping and sex work. The pole dancing that I share, that I practice, that we see across mainstream popular culture, does not exist without the strippers and sex workers that paved the way. To me, it is important to acknowledge the roots of pole dance and help to educate others on these roots, while also advocating for the decriminalization of sex work as a whole.
Q: What are you hoping to communicate through your performance on Saturday?
A: I am hoping to communicate a performance that highlights this concept of being both an image and an image-maker, and a subject and a muse, all at once. Although I am not a painter, I’d say this performance is my version of a moving, breathing self-portrait. I hope to pay homage to all the incredible woman image-makers that came before me.
