Mētra Saberova is a Latvian moving image and performance artist, currently doing a practice-based PhD research at London South Bank University under the supervision of Dr. Elena Marchevska and Dr. Eugénie Pastor. Her research explores how the perception of women with an essentialized link to motherhood is a restrictive one in terms of their identity and gender. In the context of the thesis, “women” are defined as such based on their own self-identification with the gender identity of a woman. Consequently, the thesis asks what are the implications for essentialist categorization of gender roles in the context of gender identities that transgress the gender binary? The objective is to further the research into the queering of reproductive issues and to contribute to the growing field of investigation in the studies of voluntary childfree lifestyle with the help of drag king performance and animation as research methodologies.
Mētra has used her own orchestrated experiences of medical tourism and bodily interventions to encourage discussions about the female body and its capabilities, including tubal ligation in Thailand, hymenoplasty in Poland, IVF consultations in Bulgaria and full breast tattoos in Latvia. Next to the international exhibitions, her focus is the scene in Riga, forming a core of the young Latvian queer feminist artist and activist generation. Mētra is the founder and manager of the Baltic Drag King collective, that encompasses the drag performers from the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.