Loved by You begins with Dino Desica’s fascination with Marilyn Monroe and with a line attributed to her: “I’m just a small girl in a big world looking for someone to love.”
For Dino, Monroe becomes more than an object of impersonation. Her carefully constructed image, vulnerability and desire to be loved provide a lens through which to examine his own experiences of queer intimacy and the contradictions of contemporary romantic life.
Moving between personal stories, audience encounters and a cappella fragments of songs associated with Monroe, Dino shifts between the romantic mythology of Hollywood and the realities of Grindr, darkrooms, dating apps and social media. Technologies that promise connection instead expose cycles of looking, choosing, rejection and starting again.
The performance deliberately avoids becoming a polished impersonation of Monroe. Instead, Dino borrows fragments of her image and mythology to expose his own. Seduction gives way to awkwardness, humour to confession, and performance to moments of genuine vulnerability.
At its centre is a simple but unresolved desire: in a world where we have more ways than ever to find one another, why can being loved still feel so difficult?
Performance: Dino Desica
Presented at: The Divine, London
Photography: Luka Xuan
