The Silicone Diaries

“There’s no such thing as being real in this culture… Every identity has been bought and sold.” from the Runner Newspaper, Vancouver, Feb 2012

The Silicone Diaries makes the critics picks for shows to see in Vancouver 11/12 theatre season, Sept 2011

The Silicone Diaries in Ottawa, June 2011

The poster for The Silicone Diaries at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, June 2011

Press release for The Silicone Diaries at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, May 2011

“She’s fast becoming worthy of first name status only – a la Judy, Marilyn, Cher, Madonna… a true original”, Outlooks – Canada’s National LGTB Magazine, March 2011

Le reliquat de Nina –a very interesting editorial about me and my work by cultural critic Nathalie Petrowski of La Presse, Montreal, Dec 2010

Les Monologues du Plastiques, on the cover of La Presse, Montreal, Dec 2010

Quand le Corps et sa Transformation Deviennent de l’Art: Fugues Magazine, Montreal, Dec 2010

Beauté plastique –pre-publicity for the Montreal production of The Silicone Diaries (Theatre Lachapelle) in Le Voir, Montreal, Dec 2010

“The fabulous Nina Arsenault breaks the mould”, Hour magazine, Montreal, Dec 2010

“Arsenault uses herself to both stunning and ruthless effect”, by Sasha Van Bon Bon, Montreal Mirror, Dec 2010

provocation is not the piece’s raison d’être. At its core, The Silicone Diaries is a trenchant deconstruction of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be beautiful, from someone who has gone to considerable lengths to achieve both” – Toronto Life’s Spotlight Artist, Toronto Life, Dec 2010

“Is that empowerment or enslavement?” -The Silicone Diaries mentioned in article about my director Brendan Healy in the Toronto Star, Sept 2010

“I think it’s naive and simplistic to give up something [this] powerful just because it causes pain and suffering.” – What’s Up Yukon on the upcoming production of The Silicone Diaries in Whitehorse, Jan 2010

“As transsexuals we have a lot of conflicted feelings about our bodies and I had a tumultuous history with mine.” – Yukon News, Jan 2010

“A lot of the media images I put out there – a lot of the time I consider them really ironic.  Or I consider them a self-critique.  But a lot of time people take them on a literal level.” – Eye Weekly, Toronto, Nov 2009

“Identity is so complicated – what we like, what we strive to achieve. Some of these things are constructed by media images, family values, trauma in our lives… Still, we have this idea that we maintain an innate sense of ‘realness’ since birth. But how can we?” – Yfile, York University’s daily paper, Toronto, Nov 2009

“This is a deep, deep passion and I’m not going to apologize for it or let people pathologize me.” — Toronto Star, Nov 2009

“I was never afraid to reveal things.” – FabMagazine,Toronto, Nov 2009

“even though I feel I’m a woman inside, I don’t have to try to emulate or reproduce a middle-class heteronormative idea of what a woman is supposed to be. I do not think I’m a ‘normal’ woman who was trapped in a male body… My experience of growing up queer, inside a male body, socialized as a male, living with male privilege for 20 years, has made me who I am.” — Xtra Magazine, Toronto, Nov 2009

“Someone who’s worked hard to transform herself into someone who she thinks she is authentically, but who she thinks she is is very much a media creation.” –director Brendan Healy in Xtra magazine, Toronto , Sept 2009

 

 

I was Barbie

“To actually want to hire someone who’s known for having massive amounts of plastic surgery to represent a doll that’s accused of screwing up the body image of millions of little girls?” -pre-publicity for the Whitehorse production of I was Barbie in What’s Up Yukon, Jan 2011

“She is primarily an artist who does not ‘prioritize art and life.’ They are both equally important to her.”  –Xtra magazine’s theatre writer David Bateman on my continuing work (…to the Yukon), Jan 2011

“I would say that everyone living in modern culture pretty much is a cyborg.”.” – interview with MONOmagazine.net, Aug 2010

 ”The more [authenticity] I can reveal in my performance, the more chance there is of someone in the audience saying, ‘How did she know that about me?’”, by Chris Dupuis, interview with Xtra Magazine, Aug 2010

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Queer Art Diva

” I’m interested in talking to people who are hungry for new ideas, interested in people who want to explore the complications of life, their mind, their body, their being”, Imprint – the official University of Waterloo newspaper, Nov 2011