Author: Maya Ben David

Snake Girl’s Hyperbolic Time Chamber curated by Earl Miller and The Queen Street West BIA is made in dedication to the 20 children of Bullenhuser Damm, upon whom Nazi Physician Kurt Heissmeyer conducted tortuous pseudo-medical experiments during WWII in an attempt prove Nazi race theories. All 20 children were eventually murdered. Ben David is a cousin of Marek James, one of those 20 children.

Snake Girl carries the 3rd-generation trauma from the Holocaust, and exists in a time when neo-Nazis are not only resurfacing but thriving. Ben David will be performing as Snake Girl, a personified Nazi propaganda image of Jews during the Holocaust. Snake Girl is trapped in a Nazi-operated bubble laboratory and is desperately trying to escape. In a revenge-based wrestling narrative, Snake Girl will use the in-lab Time Chamber to play out an ultimate showdown with the Nazi SS Physician Kurt Heissmeyer.

This performance would not be possible without the creative collaboration with artists Brandon Doty, Alehandra Monreal, Stephen Thomas and Alvin Luong.

Prosthetics and Makeup by Katherine Piro, Photos and Filming by Jamie Mcmillan