Gary Kinsman

During the Purge, queers were surveilled, with a desire for non-heteronormative bodies seen as dangerous. This ballet explores the tension between conformity and the yearning for freedom of sexual expression. In an immersive video installation, viewers navigate veiled screens revealing the ballet’s movements. The story includes a lesbian recruit, an ambassador accused of espionage, men seeking anonymous encounters, and an Investigator thwarted by a Decoy. In the final chapter, the recruit demands rank and honor, symbolizing resistance to federal policies under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The homosexual witch-hunt of public servants and military personnel in Canada from the 1950s through the early 1990s and its effects on the people whose lives and careers were disrupted or destroyed by it.