ABOUT THE WORK

F*ck My Life (FML) is a mute spectacle that explores the backstory and failure of Xandra Ibarra’s burlesque persona. With direction from Evan Johnson, Ibarra reveals her incompatible relationship with her audience, the burden of racial representation, and the emotional toll that her spictacles have had over the past ten years of her project “La Chica Boom.” By juxtaposing her story with the rumored death of Hollywood’s “Mexican Spitfire” Lupe Velez, who purportedly died with her head in the toilet, La Chica Boom foreshadows the destiny of her persona- she becomes a a cockroach: reviled and untamable.

Ibarra has a video work of the same name, Fuck My Life, it is a different but related work and can be found here.