Lou Sheppard: A Strong Desire

Current Khyber artist-in-residence Lou Sheppard explores the space in translation where words change and shed meaning with their show A Strong Desire: "There is a concept in translation theory called the lacuna. The lacuna is a lexical gap, where a direct equivalent between two languages doesn’t exist," their artist's statement begins, before asking what it would be like to envision this imperfect place of shedding and slippage as a queer space. Within that space, Sheppard explores the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' criteria for gender dysphoria, translating the manual's psychiatric diagnosis into a choreography.