Welcome To My Home is a glimpse into the world of Baleada Queen, a fallen telenovela star clinging to what remains of her former stardom. The video reflects the journey of recovery that Sarah Beckman as Balaeda Queen has experienced, calling on themes such as mental illness, isolation, and what beauty and fame mean in the digital age. Welcome To My Home comments on the often overlooked side effects of medication for mental illnesses. Baleada Queen forces us to consider the question: Is the cure sometimes worse than the illness itself?
See Digital America’s interview with Baleada Queen here.
:::
In the fall of 2016, following a series of traumatic incidents, Sarah Beckwith decided to leave New York and move to Honduras to live with her missionary parents. As Beckwith adjusted to life in Central America, she experienced a feeling of alienation so intense it began to author alternate-reality versions of herself, including Baleada Queen, a mentally-ill telenovela actress struggling to stabilize while clinging to the remnants of stardom. Beckwith’s work is about her. It’s about isolation, mental illness, voyeurism, living as an American expatriate and the meaning of beauty and celebrity in the digital age. Baleada Queen’s journey to recovery is inextricably tied up in Beckwith’s, as she continually detaches from and reattaches to herself, discovering new means of expression and ways of relating to her illness, her projected image and the world at large.
