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When Acid met the Brazilian legend Wandera Jones
Wandera Jones, icon of the night scene of Belo Horizonte, won the audience with their unique artistic creations
For over two decades acting as a drag queen, mining Wandera Jones, 45, not surprisingly the beautiful-horizontino public, other places and even from abroad with your artwork. Social networks that lead and bring images from one place to another with great ease, have contributed to this. This year, for example, one of the videos of a performance in which she appeared dressed as a cloud and literally rained on the stage won admirers of drag art, the country’s first, and then the world, with the feul of circulation around foreign blogs.
The record was what aroused the interest of the American drag queen Acid Betty. Arriving in Belo Horizonte, where she performed in October, Betty (who participated in the 8th season of the reality show “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) was delighted once again with Jones to see her come, live in one of his latest creations and celebrating nature. She took out the phone, made a small recording and posted a fragment than watched on Instagram with the caption:
“When Acid Betty arrived here, she wanted to see the presentation of the rain. But to see me in that outfit, she saw that my job was not only what he saw first, “says Jones. She says Betty, impressed revealed never met another person who could do something similar to Jones, whose dress, in this case, also brought a structure connected to a battery able to make a set of flowers open and close.
“I was kind of surprised when she said that. Outside, the artists have so much in his favor, that I almost did not believe it. When I gave her a prop head, she almost cried, not believing that it was made of paper, “he says, proud of herself.
“She said I was alone and I think I’m the same. Already googled around, I looked on the internet and never thought something like my work done by other drag queens. What I do you will only find in Hollywood, but here it is; every trick, “he laughs.
Professional. The use of effects, anchored in technological devices, has become one of the hallmarks of the artist who was born in Nova Lima, where he lives and produces daily in his studio. From there, also out fantasies that prepares for samba schools in the state capital. “Today I am more technology, with these clothes that produce movement. And it became a challenge because every presentation is as if I had to overcome the previous show something new, “says Jones, who has a name inspired by the pop diva and fashion Grace Jones. “When I started riding, I was very skinny and I also said that I had an androgynous beauty, like Grace Jones,” hepoints out . The first, via beauty contests, was for more than two decades, and in 2017, it will complete 25 years of career. The taste for androgyny and the stranger she notices be a regular part of your route. Both declaring: “I do not see beauty,” when referring to the unconventional pattern of your style.
On the inspiration for their performances, Jones says that much of it comes from the cinema. So she has performed dressed up as alien movie villain “Predator,” he embodied the alien singer Diva Plavalaguna, the film “The Fifth Element” and in 2010 participated in the television program “What Is Your Talent” with a look inspired by the film “Avatar”.
Every day, she reported to be more autonomous in their creative process, but if something is drawing practicing since childhood, sewing in his craft is more recent.”I’m not a seamstress, but if you need, I study and I search the maximum to get the result I want.” What I like to do is take care of the plastic part, from the structure of clothing to the scene of the presentations, “says Jones, who has to help Geovane Hoffman, 31, her boyfriend, to realize their ideas.
“Usually, we spend two months between the research and assembly presentations.We took movie ideas, TV series and the internet. You know a head of Medusa with snakes moving, which appeared around? So, we already know how to do “, says Hoffman, leaving a hint of what will come around.
| PHOTO: FERNANDA CARVALHO |
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| Partnerships. Wandera Jones alongside Amy Lanvin to (left) and Penelope (right); artists that make up different generations of drag |
GENERATIONS
A reference to the latest artists
Wandera Jones does not usually work alone. Less than a month, for example, when a party held in Belo Horizonte, placed 16 drag queens to parade the clothes of his own – including Amy Lanvin, 23, and Penelope, 27. With this, it will makeheadway, also learning from the latest names. “I get inspired by a lot that the younger generation brings in the same way that they can also learn something with me. I think there is an exchange between us, “says Jones.
Penelope account that made the first partnership with the artist in 2008, in a presentation to the taste of the host. “She wore an outfit that made her the stage size and many LED lights. That was a shock, because this type of resource was something scarce and difficult to move. They were sewn thread by thread, spoiled easily, requiring constant repair, “he recalls.
Lanvin stresses that he saw Jones first empathy was immediate. “I had never seen a Brazilian drag, or other countries, as beautiful and as performative Wandera. She had a different look, robotic means. What it offers is a very rare sight in nightclub work. It’s amazing and be amazed, admiring all the time, “he says.