Anthony Hudson / Carla Rossi

Grantee:  Anthony Hudson / Carla Rossi
Native Citizenship:  Grand Ronde
Location:  Portland, Oregon
Award:  2018 National Artist Fellowship
Discipline:  Artistic Innovation
Web Site:  thecarlarossi.com

Performance artist Anthony Hudson confronts supremacy, complacency, and the confusion of “mixed” identities while promoting understanding and acceptance of the full spectrum of experiences and selves. Based in Portland, Oregon and of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, he credits his father and grandmother as integral to his understanding of his cultures and their traditions, encouraging him in his gifts as a daring and innovative storyteller.

Hudson’s work defies demeaning and cruel societal constructs through drag, performance, video, and theater. While he refers to her as “MY Coyote”, her “real” name is Carla Rossi. Through Carla, the Trickster stories his grandmother used to tell are channeled, updated and enhanced. Carla is, of course, Anthony’s tool for merciless critique, but as a “drag clown,” she is able to make us laugh and question gender’s Western construction. She similarly undermines any white notions of race we may hold, and we love her for it. His work may expose the cruelty of a Western-based view of a queer biracial urban Indian, but it also uplifts us when he shares the beautiful tradition of Native respect for “Two Spirits”.

Hudson is interested in the edge and how to maneuver living both in-between and outside the lines. Through his art, he hopes to be able to reach a broad audience, but his heart has a soft place reserved for young people. As personified as Carla or Anthony, the ultimate objective of “their” work is to create new realities, alternatives and models for living in the hopes of healing ourselves and those around us.

Hudson received Premiere PDX’s Excellence in Artistry Award for 2015.  He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

I think fantasy and play is the best place to start. To take the tragic and make it magic.

~ Anthony Hudson / Carla Rossi

Anthony Hudson sings the old ancestral hymn “Half-Breed” by Cher in this preview for LOOKING FOR TIGER LILY. Filmed at the Risk/Reward Festival of New Performance at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, OR on June 18, 2016. Video courtesy the artist.