Reclaiming spaces with transness - Identity, Art and Inclusiveness

Today, we celebrate transness to the hilt & bring you some visual artists addressing gender and identity through their art.

1. Cassils: Becoming an Image

Cassils,a Canadian trans performance artist put up a show called ‘Becoming an Image’ in 2013 where they challenged gender conformity through their 20-min. performance. It included Cassils,a photographer,an audience inside a blacked-out room & 1500 pounds of clay. During the performance,the audience can hear Cassils grunting & punching the clay,with no visual representation of the same. This act represents the acts of violence against trans & queer bodies. The audience is able to witness Cassils for split seconds when the act is illuminated by the flash of the camera.

2. Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo)

Installed at the center of Art Basel,Jade’s sculpture is the first public exhibit of a nude trans body. Puppies Puppies aka Jade Kuriki Olivo is an indigenous performance artist & sculptor addressing gender nonconformity through her art. This installation which is made in the style of a Greek statue,has ‘WOMAN’ engraved on the pedestal to push the conversation of trans women being real women without medical transition or conventional physical attribution of a woman.

3. Aravani Art Project

An art collective based in Bangalore, this Project was started as a movement to enable the transgender community & give them a voice through art. The team consists of trans & cis women & is commissioned to create street art all over the country. Creating murals at metro stations, schools & parking lots, the collective has driven many conversations representing the inclusion of gender fluidity in everyday spaces. This project not only generates employment for the trans community but also enables them to reclaim the spaces that have demonized them.

4.Chella Man

Chella Man is a deaf Chinese Jewish American trans & genderqueer artist whose work focuses on conversations about disability,race & gender. His art,filled with bright colors and detailed abstractions related to his identity as a trans man, explores multiple mediums like paintings & sculptures.