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MAN AT DOOR / ATTACKER / SOUND MIXER / MAKE-UP — William Amaya For William O. Amaya Torres, growing up in South America was a series of real-life lessons in storytelling. When he moved to the United States to pursue his studies, he ended up in the hot weather of southern Florida, mopping the floors of a middle school and attempting to avoid borderline prostitution. For a number of months he worked illegally in a sweatshop for twelve hours a day or night, inhaling clouds of carcinogenic dust and staring at what seemed to be an infinite line of hot plastic emanating from an elongated machine. He attended free ESL classes and submerged himself in eighteen months of what he called a “self-loathing depression” — in which he would simultaneously write, masturbate and cut his skin. Having thus learnt English, he undertook four years of classes in psychology, logic, and philosophy at Broward Community College, developing his artistic concepts while concentrating on theater and photography instruction with Teresa Diehl. At the end of 2005, he received a merit scholarship to attend The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, which, along with grants and financial aid, allowed him to move to Chicago, where he is presently focusing on the study and practice of performance art, video, writing, and photography. His approach to artistic expression is not always optimistic — rather, it reflects his fractured and illogical worldview. He feels that for the majority of the peoplein the world, present society is a consumerist monster created by depersonalization and apathy. His work in film and video includes: make-up artist, translator, and “Man at Door / Attacker” in Nicholas Monsour’s OH MY SOUL; “Eating Human / Himself” in Gonzalo Escobar’s Accidentally Sprayed; make-up aporriado, translator, and “Main Character” in Susan Levine’s Tumble. Currently, he is fabricating purulent and infected boils as the make-up artist on Melika Bass’ new film project. |