Curated by Yuki Kihara 
Research & Development in 2024; and exhibition presentation in 2025/2026

Keywords: Art, Queer, Costume, Performance, Social History

Kneel Halt, an Auckland-based artist, has worked in costume and performance under the drag pseudonym 'DeeZaStar' for over two decades.

Halt received formal training as an actor at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and then trained as a fashion designer at the Sue Bowerman School of Design in Wellington during the 1990s. His skills, combined with a flair for queer activism and a talent for storytelling, have established him as a household name in Aotearoa. As an underground drag artist, his inspiration for DeeZaStar comes from a fusion of mythology, ritual, pop culture, and personal narratives, aiming to invert the hierarchy of class and gender. For Halt, nightlife has been a universe for showcasing the varied and amusing personas of DeeZaStar, embodied through his handcrafted costumes, which come alive with their own gestural languages.

The upcoming exhibition, titled 'DeeZaStar,' will offer a glimpse into Halt's dynamic career. It will feature a survey of selected costumes presented alongside ephemera, including 1990s rave flyers, newspaper articles, and sketchbooks from his extensive personal archives. Additionally, a series of public performances will highlight DeeZaStar's trajectory by revisiting past performances and introducing new ones staged periodically throughout the exhibition cycle. These ephemeral performances will allude to anecdotes of his lived experiences and serve as a metaphor for social commentary. The public performances will be documented and featured in the exhibition, and published in a catalogue with an interview between the artist and the curator.

The 'DeeZaStar' exhibition aims to be a touring exhibition with a focus on queer visibility, which is often lacking in the programming of publicly-funded galleries and museums across Aotearoa in the post-Homosexual Law Reform Act of 1986 era.