Up the Fingerprints!
Down the Footprints!
Gender Bender 2019.
Historical Trans and Genderqueer Figures.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, was the first woman to obtain one-woman shows in major museums. She was androgynous, bisexual and polyamorous, often falling for couples. She loved being alone in nature and painting while naked. Model: BB Guns Costume: Henri Ennui
Frida Kahlo is a superstar (mostly posthumously) surrealist painter, staunch socialist, and bisexual, gender experimentalist who liked to cross-dress. She and her painter husband Diego Rivera were polyamorous and lived in separate houses. Her focus on painting was created by the necessity of being bedridden her whole life from complications from the bus/trolley accident that destroyed her body when she was 18.......
This represents all the genderqueer & trans people who can’t express their real selves due to work, family, or cultural limitations. This also represents the people who keep their transition a secret from those in their lives. And it represents the people who no longer have contact with their families because they have transitioned and their families don’t want to get to know that side of them. Model: Anonymous
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, was the first woman to obtain one-woman shows in major museums. She was androgynous, bisexual and polyamorous, often falling for couples. She loved being alone in nature and painting while naked. Model: BB Guns Costume: Henri Ennui
Gender Bender
For this project I am highlighting historical/ famous genderqueer and transgender figures. Homosexuals, genderqueer and transgender people have always existed, however queer history has been intentionally left out of the duration of recorded history. Nobody knows, for example, that General Washington and General Lafayette were essentially in a homosexual marriage, even though we know all about their battles. There are only two significant LGBTQ museums in the entire United States. The goal of this project is to lift up and celebrate my queer, genderqueer, and trans family.
---------
'Genderqueer', 'non-binary', and 'gender-nonconforming' refer to those outside of the cis binary, but who do not necessarily identify as trans. - So in my opinion, pretty much everyone, since we all have traits that are stereotypical of each gender. I often use a looser definition of ‘genderqueer’ to mean simply people who are not cis-gendered.
Gender and sexual orientation are separate identities with a big overlap. For example, someone can be trans and identify as straight or homosexual and identify as their birth gender.
---------
“We’re all born naked and the rest is drag.” -RuPaul
Gender-Bender-a-Day has been my most challenging Fun-a-Day project yet (it's my 8th), because it is highly collaborative and therefore challenges my social anxiety. Thanks so much to everyone who complimented and encouraged me. Those words were indispensable for my motivation. I loved neglecting myself for this project -I didn’t work out or washed my hair or go dancing!
I am so happy to live in what would be an impossible dream-world from the perspectives of most of the historical figures portrayed in my series, where being ourselves in whatever form is no longer illegal and violence & harassment over queer and genderqueer identities becomes rarer and rarer.
“We’re here, we’re queer. We’re fabulous, don't fuck with us.” -Dyke March
Love & Solidarity,
Eel-Eye Avenue