Ále Campos is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer based in Hudson, NY. They create live and video performances through which they work to examine the containers of their own identity. They often implement drag as a tool for challenging and remimaging the boundaries of these containers. They collect material for these performances by mining through sites of childhood memory, family, their own Salvadorian heritage, popular music, as well as formative experiences of gender identity, sex and love. A common generative theme in their work lies in a queer sense of longing and belonging. Ále layers these fragments, which can manifest as text, audio, video, or sculpture, in performance along with their body in order to locate a non-binary perspective. Ále uses drag for its cathartic and fantastical qualities, particularly when charting personal narratives.
They also perform drag in the entertainment context, under the stage-name, Celeste. Here they tend to operate as community organizer and producer of events, with a desire and drive to create platforms for a variety queer performance. Much of their work consists of collaborative and group efforts. In the fall of 2020, they received a grant from the city of Hudson’s Tourism Board to actualize a queer-run, mobile pop-up stage capable of hosting and funding drag performances and hyper local artists and talents.
Education
2020-2022
MFA in Performance / School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2012-2016
BA / Bennington College
Exhibitions / Performances
2020
"Por La Noche" (as part of "De Por Vida"), Company Gallery, NY, NY
2020
Old Ways New Tools (SAIC Virtual Performance Showcase)
2020
PROJECT x PROJECT x PROJECT, Collar Works, Troy, NY
2019
Young Hudson Biennial, September Gallery, Hudson, NY
2019
From Here, You'll Never Leave, L&B, Hudson, NY
2019
Family Reunion, Club Sourdough, Brooklyn, NY
2019
GRAND BUFFET GROUP SHOW, Babayaga, Hudson, NY
2018
ISSUE 2: DEVOTIONAL, The Church, Troy, NY
2017
IN THE MIDDLE OF, Rhinebeck, NY
Grants
2020
Project Hudson Tourism Board Grant for HI-BEAM Mobile Stage Project
Events/Happenings
12.13.19
ARENA: Noche Latinx, The Halfmoon, Hudson, NY
Jan 2018-present
Queer Night of Performance (monthly happening), Lil Deb's Oasis, Hudson, NY