LOS ANGELES — Marval Rex, a transmasculine Jewish man, grew up as a Catholic lady in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah. Although the artist and performer has uncovered his physique to audiences in boundary-pushing performances and gotten up shut and private in impartial movies, he has shunned delving too deeply into his personal life experiences — till now.
In a brand new one-man present debuting this week on the Elysian theater, Rexodus: Out of the Closet, Into the Tribe, Rex traces his journey of self-discovery by means of a mixture of “efficiency artwork, stand-up comedy, and theater.”
“It’s type of a TED speak, however not a boring one,” he instructed Hyperallergic.
Rex obtained his MFA from the College of Southern California’s Roski Faculty of Artwork and Design in 2020, making a reputation for himself with transgressive, body-based performances that recalled the unconventional early work of fellow Angeleno artists Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley.
“I relate to McCarthy deeply,” Rex stated, noting they’re each from Salt Lake Metropolis. “I perceive the place he was raised.”
A lot of Rex’s early performances concerned “surprising the world into seeing a transmasc physique,” he defined, noting that societal acceptance of trans people has grown considerably since he transitioned 11 years in the past. “Trans folks age in canine years,” he joked. Against this, his journey to Judaism has taken place quickly over the previous few years, however attracts on centuries of hidden household historical past.
In 2019, on the suggestion of his frequent collaborator Oscar David Alvarez, Rex started listening to Weekly Power Increase, a podcast about Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah. He was hooked, burning by means of a whole bunch of episodes. Feeling spiritually related to what he was studying, he started working with a kabbalistic mentor over Zoom in the course of the pandemic; the mentor, Rex stated, talked about that the area of Spain the place his mom’s household hails from is a historic middle of Jewish mysticism. The artist recalled that when he was about 15, his father instructed the household that primarily based on his mom’s Catalan heritage, there was likelihood they had been descended from conversos, Spanish Jews who transformed to Catholicism in the course of the Spanish Inquisition to keep away from persecution and loss of life. The items had been beginning to fall into place.
Rex transformed to Judaism in 2020 and had a b’nai mitzvah in 2020, sharing the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony with tv author and director Joey Soloway. Fittingly, Rex’s Torah portion, the part of the Hebrew Bible learn in the course of the ceremony, concerned Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, central ideas to Jewish life. “That’s a core a part of Jewish mysticism, synchronicity and magic,” Rex stated.
Across the similar time, Rex’s mom started doing her personal genealogical analysis on the Genealogical Society of Utah, ultimately discovering the household identify, Prades, in data from the Inquisition. The identify didn’t have a flame image subsequent to it, which means they weren’t burned on the stake, selecting conversion as a substitute. “My mother spent 35 years residing 12 blocks away from a constructing that held her household final identify in Spanish Inquisition data,” Rex defined. “She didn’t wish to know. I’m the catalyst for her wanting to search out out extra.”
In 2023, Rex obtained funding from Reboot Studios, the artistic arm of the Jewish arts and tradition nonprofit Reboot, to create a documentary movie primarily based on his household’s hidden Jewish previous and his personal non secular conversion, which now consists of plans to change into a rabbi. The movie’s title, The 700 Yr Hole, refers back to the span of time between 1291, the yr when the identify Prades was first listed in a document of Jewish households, and the current.
The concept for his new efficiency, Rexodus, emerged from the occasions and discoveries within the movie. The result’s a theatrical narrative interweaving his personal identification and trials as a trans man, his journey together with his mom to Salt Lake Metropolis and Spain to uncover their very own painful household historical past, and his latest transformation as a Jewish man.
“Rexodus builds on each efficiency I’ve ever executed. I spent a variety of time getting bare and doing surprising issues, however I wasn’t totally embodying my reality, although I used to be bearing myself to the viewers. I felt like I used to be hiding in plain sight,” he stated. “With Rexodus, right here’s my precise nakedness, my precise story.”
A second efficiency on the Elysian theater is scheduled for October 25. The present will head to the East Coast in 2025, however particulars have but to be launched.