Miami Made: TM Sisters Bring On the Bling in Shimmer

Monica Lopez De Victoria and Tasha Lopez De Victoria are the bling that binds the TM Sisters. The “do-it-yourself” Miami-based, performance-art sisterhood will premiere their new work, Shimmer, during the Arsht Center’s Miami Made Festival 2012. Shimmer is Miami. Like the Energizer Bunny, Miami, with its over-caffeinated inhabitants, sea breezes, insane traffic, neon lights, booming homemade low-riders, and cosmic clash of cultures, is what powers Shimmer. The performance explores that “sliver of time when dawn and dusk are indiscernible.” That’s when all of the chaos around us is muted and transfixed on the fiery sky. As kids, the TM Sisters were home-schooled by their parents. This gave way to intense philosophical and spiritual discussions that shaped their identity and brought them close. Trust is essential for the TM Sisters, but Miami is the locomotive that fires up their work. Well, here’s how they tell it. Artburst: Being open to the process, letting things work themselves out, is an essential element of your work. Where does this risk-taking, experimental bent come from? TM Sisters: Yes, we start creating with a hurricane of ideas and begin an adventurous path. As the piece progresses, we see the art work/performance make itself. It begins speaking to us things that we hadn’t understood at the beginning. It is a lively, whispering journey! That’s a big risk. What makes you so daring? This riskiness may have been born from our being home-schooled and letting our brains go to experience new ways of thinking about the universe. Over the years, we have learned how to let go of these pieces and let them be their own animals, which is both scary and thrilling! Are your performances co-created or does one sibling work on one area while the other work on another area? Both. We co-create our pieces, but each of us focuses on a section until we overlap our layers and overlap and overlap and layer and layer. And overlap! Discuss the use of experimental lighting techniques in Shimmer and how they bring the narrative to ‘light’? Shimmer is a glittery, gusty, electric, sparkly, bright, dark, prismatic and hypnotic segment of the atmosphere between night and day. You will have to come to the performance to see! What is the “tropical Miami twist” in Shimmer? The flair and flavor of what our city has. How important is Miami to your work? Does the city influence your work? It was gradual admittance that our work had a direct connection to Miami’s essence. We started traveling and touring in Europe a few years back and this is when people pointed out our aesthetic connections to Miami’s history. That’s when we realized how much we loved it. We are proud of our hometown and it has affected us tremendously. We adore the sunset/sunrise colors that smear our sky, the rich saturated nightlife, the calm ocean air, the clashing and blending of cultures, and especially the cheesy bling and neon lights of the streets. What would you like readers to know about the performance? Come early because it is a free event and you have to be in line to get in. Wear something shimmery and bring your power. Miami Made Festival took place a the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, from March 1 through 4. This article first appeared in Miaminewtimes.com