Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander D’Agostino.
Hi Alexander, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Syracuse New York and moved to Baltimore in 2005 to study painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and have been here ever since. I was heavily involved in performance events in the city like Transmodern Festival, Akimbo Dance Fest, Light City, LabBodies Performance events. I started studying and training in dance shortly after MICA and continue to work across multiple disciplines creating queer worlds and experiences.
I also read tarot and teach Yoga.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a colorful and undulating road to get to whatever this point in life has become. Which for me is pursuing my artistic research, developing new work and living each day with curiosity. The financial struggles that come from the massive student debt I acted from MICA along with the competitive and fickle economic nature of the arts forced me to be creative and measured in ways that seem to have helped payed the way for more upward movement of momentum at this point in my journey.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I perform as the Glitterwitch. It’s my altar ego I uncovered when I was involved in a burlesque group called Rude Girls Burlesque. I formally named that character during a performance in an old flower shop curated by LabBodies-a performance art curatorial project led by Hoesy Corona and Ada Pinkston in early 2010s.
I like to play with pointe shoes as subversive body-extensions to deliver a repertoire or fairy-like creatures that explore queer history, memory, and desire.Somewhere between Ballet and a punk show I find my performance vocabulary its own ritualistic lexicon.
Working in rare book rooms and public archives has lead me to a practice of visual and performance practices that has culminated in multiple solo exhibitions featuring the visual artwork I create, which often consists of artist books, alternate process prints on textiles and leaves and sculptural installations.
I recently presented a performance in the reading room at the Folger Shakespeare Library in partnership with Transdofmer DC. It was a queer spirit invocation that reimagined the witches in Macbeth in a very queer way. Corresponding with an exhibition called “Something Wicked” at Transformer DC. I’m quite proud of creating a queer fairy performance and exhibition based on my fellowship with the Folger at a moment of such bold anti queerness at this particular moment in the U.S. of A.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Advice is tricky. We all have to find our own way and trust our own voice. Persistence is something to keep sacred. Also, embrace failure as a lesson not a condemnation. Keep what ever it is up how ever you can!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alexanderdagostino.com
- Instagram: xxglitterwitchxx
