Drag Comes in Many Layers

2019

This series focuses on the nuances of drag and some of the forms it can take to stretch, imagine, and bend gender.

Artist Statement

My goal with this series is to deconstruct the typically narrow and uninformed perception of drag, what it means to perform drag, and what drag means for gender expression in the Queer community. I work to break apart not only the physical look presented in these portraits, but to also dissect the layers existing within exaggerated and performative gender expression. I once had a friend tell me that every day, every person is performing in drag whether they realize it or not. We all wake up, dress, and perform in a version of ourselves for the world around us. This is neither good nor bad, it just is. This made me think, and I haven’t stopped thinking since about what gender and performance means to us all, and why the constructs around it are formed.

I believe mainstream drag is more palatable because for the most part it still exists within an acceptable binary. Those outside the Queer community are able to grasp drag when it’s simple, and adheres to previously understood contracts between identity and gender expression. In shows like Ru Paul’s Drag Race, androgyny is seldom the focus or the norm. I wanted to challenge this and present drag being taken from its popular and consumable form, down to a more uncomfortable and raw expression, both literally and figuratively.