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Virgin Xtravaganzah

Virgin Xtravaganzah

Virgin Xtravaganzah

Text JF. Pierets    Photos Courtesy of Virgin Xtravaganzah

 

As an impersonator of the Virgin Mary, performance artist Virgin Xtravaganzah talks about how Mary actually loves the gay community and that people got it wrong in the books. That God doesn’t care whether you’re gay or straight; he just wants you to be a good person and get over these trivial limitations. A conversation about working from an outward place, the joy of performing and identification with an icon. 

 

You’ve just returned from some gigs abroad. You’re quite busy these days. 
It’s been quite a big year in terms of my development on the scene. Last year I won a drag competition and started to perform the Virgin Xtravanganzah persona on a regular basis. It seems like people very much respond to the character.

Why do you think that is? 
I think because it’s intriguing. The story of the Virgin Mary, the legend, is very much built into our psyche, even if you are not a Christian. To see that kind of icon impersonated by a drag queen with a mustache, is quite attention grabbing.

How did you come up with the concept of impersonating the Virgin Mary? 
I was, as I call it, casually raised Catholic. I was never baptized but I went to a Catholic school so as from a very young age, I got acquainted with the Bible. I’ve always been very drawn to dramatics and loved the over-the-top archetypes in fairytales. I had a similar feeling about the Virgin Mary. She was, and still is, a mysterious creature. Did you know that there are only 14 lines in the Bible about her? We don’t know anything about her and still, she’s everywhere: she’s on the altar and in paintings, as well as there are millions of statues to light a candle in front of. She has such a presence in the church yet she has no voice. So I thought; what would it be like if she was a modern day 14 year old girl? What would she sound like if she were growing up today? So I gave her this American valley girl accent and I started to create an identity.

Do you identify with your character? 
I do, yes. I like to put myself into a 14-year old person’s mind frame, approached by the creator of the universe who said: “Would you like to have my son and be immortalized for the rest of all eternity?” Would you dare to say no if it were you? The point is that we will never know what went through Mary’s head, her internal monologue, when that happened. She definitely didn’t know what she was getting into. I think that’s something a lot of people can identify with. Everybody is young at one point and makes decisions that they look back on and question if that was actually what they wanted to do with their life. In my incarnation of Mary, she has become a drag queen and came back to earth to do all the things she didn’t really get to do as a religious icon.

You’re very thorough when it comes to your drag identity. 
My drag is very different from a lot of other drag queens since many of them work from a different place than I do. They work from an inside-out kind of way; they take something from deep within themselves, put a magnifying glass on it, and that explosive image is what becomes their drag. Whereas for me, I’m not the Virgin Mary, obviously, so I took a character outside of myself and experimented with what happens if I internalized and regurgitated that. This became my drag character. It came from an outward kind of place instead of something coming from the inside out.

You are a trained actor. How did you become a performance artist?
I’m originally from Oregon, USA and I came to the UK to study drama. I’ve always been an attention seeker and I’ve always liked being watched doing silly things in a very broad context. I really thought acting was the thing I wanted to do but over the years I got a bit bored. I felt it was something else that I wanted to offer, something that didn’t come from somebody’s script or from a casting director. As an actor you’re always at the whim of somebody else’s idea. I can play Hamlet, but I did not create Hamlet. I didn’t create the Virgin Mary, but I did create Virgin Xtravaganzah and she’s an original concept. Through her I can be more authentic as an artist then I can be as an actor.

Can you put all your creativity into one character?
I can. I love the performative art form and I’m just as much a writer as I am a drag queen. I write all my own material, I sing live instead of lip-syncing and I take pop songs and rewrite them to tell the story of the Virgin Mary in a comic sort of way. Basically I’m the Weird All Yankovic of Catholicism.

Is the art of performance limitless? 
In it’s potential, it is, but there must be limits in the way you approach it. If you set out to just explode your soul all over an audience, there’s not going to be any structure and people might not understand what they are seeing. I find there is a limit and structure to performance art and I don’t believe you can just do whatever you want; there has to be some kind of boundary to be set for yourself. However, once those boundaries are in place, you can completely lose control. If you only set out to lose control, it’s actually more limiting. You have to make choices in order to be professional and in order to tell the exact story you aim for. Not just give birth to a vision but to give that vision a language, so that people can understand. Art that doesn’t do that becomes vague.

 

 

Joy is really powerful. If you enjoy doing what you are doing, people respond to it, always. It’s like magic.’

Is it important for you that people understand the context of the performance, because of its religious theme?  
To be honest, I’m surprised that I haven’t had more backlash. We’re talking very few comments on social media. Maybe it’s because I try to base as much of my work as possible on my intelligence. I do not make fun of the Virgin Mary and I don’t set out to be blasphemous. Because by the end of the day, the things that I stand for and the things that I talk about in my songs are about how she actually loves the gay community and that people got it wrong in the books; that God doesn’t care whether you’re gay or straight. He just wants you to be a good person and get over these trivial limitations. If you set out not to have prejudice, it wouldn’t matter whether you’re a Catholic, a Muslim or a Buddhist, and we should actually all get along. So if people are really listening to what I’m actually saying, and hopefully most people do, they’ll notice that I’m far from offensive. Yes, I have foul language sometimes, but that’s also part of the character; not wanting to be the good girl all the time but to be human.

You’re living in the UK, could you do this kind of show in the USA, where you come from? 
I have no idea to how receptive America would be to what I do. I don’t know because I never tried and it’s one of my goals to go to New York next year and actually see how people feel about my work. The Brits are very open to – I’m not going to say intelligent art, because that may say I’m intelligent – but intellectualized art. They’re very receptive to wit and to humor in particular, they don’t take things very seriously. Now America, with it’s very fundamental religious foundation, is different, and in many ways I think Virgin Xtravaganzah would be more controversial in a place like America then it would be in Europe. I also feel that the London attitude towards drag is much more free than in America, where it’s considered female impersonation. I like it more to be androgynous; to use my mustache and my skinny frame instead of being a copy of the Ru Paul’s Drag Race contestants where everybody has the boobs, the hips and the wig.

Are you inspired enough to give the character a long lasting life?
I am! I was actually just talking to my husband today that I could actually see Virgin Xtravaganzah as an old woman. There are some drag queens – and I’m looking amongst others to Dame Edna – who are older. They are artists who managed to keep the art of drag alive, far past what many drag queens have been able to do. When I get older I think it would be really interesting to see the Virgin less as a teenager but more as an older and wiser woman.

It sounds like you very much enjoy what you are doing.
I do love it, it was an original idea that hadn’t been done before and it makes me very happy. Joy is really powerful, even if everybody talks about how good art always comes from depression. If you enjoy doing what you are doing, people respond to it, always. It’s like magic.

What would you say to a 14-year old person, living in the middle of nowhere, who’s very inspired by your work? 
I grew up in a very small town so I know exactly what you are talking about. If you’re living in the middle of nowhere and really want to be an artist, it would be very easy for me to say that you should move to the big city and become a great artist. It would be easy to say, “follow your dreams, do what you want to do”. No doubt that’s an important part, but you also have to understand that life is working within the confines and the limits that you have. There’s always specificity and there’s always complexity, and the more specific you can be with your dreams and aspirations, the better. I came to the UK to go to drama school and I spent years out of work as an actor. I was working in a call center and I was very depressed; I knew I wanted to be a performer but I was constantly looking for somebody else to give me the opportunity. Whether it was my agent or a director, I was constantly looking outside of myself for someone to figure out who I am. It was only when I hit rock bottom that I realized I wanted to do something because it was fun. And that’s when things started happening. So, before anything, find the idea. Whatever that idea is. Find that vision, find that fantasy, whether it’s performance art, writing or painting. Find it first, and then go for it.

 

www.virginxtravaganzah.com

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House of Trannies

House of Trannies

House of Trannies

Text JF. Pierets    Photos Ki Price

 

‘Out with political correctness! Tranny is an endearing and loving term used amongst the drag, lgbt and queer communities to describe anyone who is transvestite, dragqueen, or does not identify with any set gender role.’ There you go! House of Trannies is a collection of photographs, exciting tableaux, which explore the most colorful individuals and the families within the East London tranny & drag community. A unique collaboration between acclaimed artist Ted Rogers and celebrity portrait photographer Ki Price. 

 

So no worries about the word Tranny? 
Ted Well, this question comes up a lot. I think it depends on how you use the word. It’s the same way as when you say ‘gay’. When you call me ‘gay’ in an affirmative way, it’s perfectly fine. But if you say ‘that’s so gay’, in a negative way, it’s not. It’s very easy to turn a word into a negative affirmation. When I started this project, ‘tranny’ was a very positive word. It’s a loving word. For me and my friends it means ‘brother’, or ‘sister’, or ‘my non-gender descriptive friend’. It’s not offensive. And it’s also not something to use as a slur against transgender people. If the word ‘tranny’ would be offending all over the world, then I wouldn’t be out to distress anyone. But for me it’s still very widely used and there shouldn’t be a problem. And it shouldn’t be made into a problem either. If the rest of the world is going politically correct than maybe we should just fuck it. Just go against it and have fun.

You call yourself a Tranny.
Ted I call myself a Tranny because it’s an ‘in between’ word. You can also call me a dragqueen, yet I don’t quite do what is considered drag. I don’t always wear a wig and I leave on my facial hair. So you can call me a lazy dragqueen, or you can call me a tranny. My aim is not to look like a girl. My aim is to express my feminine aspects. I like to show them. Why shouldn’t I float around, show a leg or wear lipstick if that makes me feel sexy? Tranny is a word that goes beyond the box.

Isn’t it quite an unusual collaboration, the two of you? 
Ki Yes and no. As a photographer I come from a documentary news background so I used to do a lot of social issues, a lot of stuff that had to do with drugs. I grew up with bohemian parents in a druggy environment, so it was kind of natural. You photograph what you see, what you know. I’m massively into sub-cultures and I do understand the principle of being looked at differently in life. Ted’s an old friend of mine, and a tranny, and we wanted to do a shoot together.
Ted The two of us, it’s indeed a weird combination. But it works! We met via mutual friends and since we seem to have quite a few affinities we started to chat, hang out.

Ki, you are working, amongst others, for The Times and Vanity Fair, you won the Canon prize for Best Image of London Fashion Week and your is work featured in Vivienne Westwood’s Memoirs. How was it to shoot a project like this? 
Ki Well, it’s probably the best thing I ever shot. And I felt both greatly privileged and humble to be involved. Initially I’m an outsider, but when I shot Ted in the safe shop with the dog, we knew that the pictures would stand out. We knew that what we were creating was good. We believed in it and we were certain that other people would get involved. And the feedback I got was that they liked working with me, that they felt the love on the set. It wasn’t about trannies. It was about catching people’s emotions.
Ted It was about home, about a family.

‘Family’ means the people from Sink The Pink (themed London-based party collective made up of dancers, drag queens, colorful club kids and fashion trannies. Ref.)? 
Ted Sink The Pink was my birth. Literally. I got asked to do a job for them as a dancer. Later they asked if I wanted to join the rehearsals and do drag with them. Now I’m doing it all the time. It’s such a colorful crowd of people. If you can go to a place where it’s encouraged to be loving and to be positive, than that’s the place you have to go to,  to be yourself and to be free. You don’t have to be rich to be part of the East London club scene because you can be rich in creativity or imagination.
Ki So the idea behind the shoot was to celebrate that particular scene. Because of its overall positivism and loving experience.

You both particularly talk about the East London club scene. Is it a fairly new scene? 
Ki The club scene always moves in waves. Living in London for so many years, the tranny scene wasn’t new to me. It’s almost even like it became trendy again. The interesting thing about the East London club scene is that in order to really indulge in it, you have to have courage. It’s a bit rawer than other drag groups. It’s very sexually liberated and not everybody has the guts to endure the insinuating looks that are thrown upon you. You have to have the imagination to go out and do it.
Ted For me it’s more or less a new scene. I’m quite young – I turned 23 just yesterday – and I only moved to London 2 years ago. There’s really not much for gay people in the suburbs of the UK. There are maybe some parts, on the outside of London or any mayor cities there, but there is really no gay scene at all. When I first came to London I went to Soho because I was told that it was the gay capital of the UK. I went on my own because I didn’t know any gay people nor did I have any gay friends.

How courageous.
Ted Well, courageous or stupid. Anyhow, I didn’t always enjoy Soho because I found it a little bit old-fashioned. Not hugely, but a little bit. The first East London club I went to was the Joiners Armes, which is recently shut down. It was the first gay club I’ve ever been to, where I felt like….happy. People wanted to talk to you, wanted to dance with you and they didn’t want to fight with you. That was my experience when it comes to the difference between East and West. Yet if that same group of people would move to the North, than it would be called the North London club scene.

Ki, you said the tranny scene is becoming trendy again. Can you elaborate? 
Ki It can become trendy and people can come and watch it, but it will never become mainstream. It’ll always have that raw edge to it, and when something becomes conventional, it usually gets boring. I don’t think the East London club scene is ever going to become boring. It might have a wave of becoming less trendy, but it’s so full of designers, artists, musicians, producers that it’s always going to have that new creativity flowing through. I think it has the potential to last forever. And even if it shifts to another part of London, that kind of scene is always going to be there.
Ted Anytime something good happens, it’s going to become trendy. Things don’t become trendy because they’re mediocre.  Like I said, I’m fairly new to all this and the way I look at it, it’s a response to the overall perception that society has on certain things. I genuinely believe that if there’s a powerful force that shows people who are having fun and expressing themselves in an attractive way, that it can change the world. It really has the power to liberate people.

 

 

 

‘If you can go to a place where it’s encouraged to be loving and to be positive, than that’s the place you have to go to, to be yourself and to be free. You don’t have to be rich to be part of the East London club scene because you can be rich in creativity or imagination.’

The Joiners Armes recently shut down, like many other gay clubs in London. What’s happening? 
Ki They’re making place for .. new flats. London is rapidly changing and a lot of the gay clubs are closed because of expansion. It’s getting quite ugly. When you go to Soho in the future, you’re going to stay in a hotel in the middle of Soho. But the hotel where you are going to stay has knocked down all the culture that is around you. Soho is a mix of everything that is vibrant. It seems pointless to stay in a hotel, where you’re supposed to be seeing culture, but  where nothing is left. Don’t you think? What’s the point? Where’s the thinking and the intelligence? 
Ted I have two views on this. One is that it’s a natural thing. Areas will always become popularized, money will always take over and they don’t care about culture anymore. But two is that it’s actually very sad and there should be a preservation of culture. It’s not that I’m against money, it just can’t be the primary focus. It’s really sad that all these clubs are shut down because they need to build new flats. New flats that no-one can afford anyway. My generation, people my age, might as well give up their dream of ever owning property unless you are really, really successful. And I would like to have property but you’re supposed to accept that you shall never get a house. It makes me a bit angry that they shut down the places where we feel safe to go. Just because of money. But unfortunately the world is not as liberal as it thinks it is. 

Do you have the feeling that by shooting ‘House of Trannies’, you made a time document? 
Ki Definitely. As a photographer, I call myself a social anthropologist and I wanted to take portraits of real people. When you’re looking at drag series you often see some incredible stuff but you see quite some flat stuff as well. For me it wasn’t obvious to do this because I’m not gay nor was I part of that particular scene. But I knew that we could both make a very stylish shoot, and be realistic in the people we portrayed. Of course we made up a setting, but the people aren’t made up. It’s who they really are. 
Ted And it’s not a fantasy world. It’s the real world. For me the emphasis had to be on celebrating people. Not about creating an image and using the people as Barbie dolls. That’s another thing I like, yet not what we wanted to do with this project. 
Ki Ted kept on saying to me that the pictures had to show the love. 
Ted For me it’s one of the chances to give back to the people who have given me a new life, really. I mean, I was so bored. So bored of life and it was so hard to live in London and then last year I get to do this job for these people and six months along the line I’ve been everywhere. With these wonderful, colorful people who totally changed my perspective on life. Totally reintegrated my hope, my faith in creativity and fun. People who are not afraid to have and express their emotions and feelings. That’s why it was so important that the series was real. Trannies are out worldly creatures, they are next level beings, beyond what you would ever expect. I think it’s a privilege for anyone to be able to even become a part of it. 

 

www.artpornblog.com
www.kiprice.com

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Zu Browka

Zu Browka

Zu Browka

Text JF. Pierets

 

Je suis une femme fatale
Je suis une animal
Je suis une cathedrale
Je suis asocial
Je suis terminale

Je suis ZU!

 

Flashback to August 1987. The soon to be legendary club RoXY opened his doors and with house music on the up, things where destined to take a radical change. It’s reputation as a collective, creative stage of self-expression crossed beyond Holland’s borders and the club became famous for it’s excessive shows, it’s insane decorations and daring performances. In 1999, the Amsterdam based cradle of avant-garde meets extravaganza, burned down. Many who experienced the heydays of those unlimited possibilities and libertarian lifestyle talk about RoXY with great nostalgia. ‘We were one big family’ and ‘nobody was a star, we were all the same’ is most often heard. Yet there is always one voice saying ‘yeah right, but I was the biggest star!’. 

We meet Zu Browka in Amsterdam in the second hand clothing shop where she works nowadays. Tall, impressive, blond and very sweet; a true bombshell. Born in a small village in Belgium, Zu discovered who she wanted to be at the age of 12: ‘I saw Amanda Lear perform ‘Follow Me’ on television and it was like everything fell into place. I thought: OK! Now I understand who I am! I’m Amanda Lear! So I followed Amanda’s example and became a very beautiful blond model myself’. 

Zu first started performing in Berlin at ‘Dollywood’, former ‘Chez Romy Haag’: ‘I started my career as a showgirl, a performer in that cabaret. The place was always filled with celebrities and since Romy was a friend of David Bowie, he also became one of my biggest fans’. Haag, another eccentric underground queen, was one of the biggest names in Berlin’s underground scene. She opened her own kitsch, trashy nightclub, which was frequently visited by artists like Bette Midler, David Bowie, Freddy Mercury and Mick Jagger. 

By that time Zu wanted to start her transition: ‘I almost never talk about my operation because in my opinion I’m a woman. I don’t like the word transgender because that’s too much of a box. There is too much moaning on the subject matter’. Her uncle Herman, who was a doctor, provided her with hormones yet Zu got send from one hospital to another: ‘In that time it was very difficult to have a sex change and that’s why I looked for different solutions’. Since Greece was known for easily getting hormones at the pharmacy, Zu and her best Berlin friend Zugar Moon went ahead: ‘In Greece we started taking hormones in order to commence with our transition, yet things quickly started to turn for the worse’. In Mykonos they had to escape from the island because they weren’t able to pay their hotel bill so they went underground, into the clubs and the brothels but finally got busted and spend two years in prison. ‘After two years we got released when Interpol got involved. Two years of rape and torture by the police. I’m planning on writing a book about it since things were beyond the imaginable’. 

Zugar Moon returned to Berlin where she committed suicide and Zu returned to Amsterdam in ’86 after a phone call by Joost van Bellen (one of the resident dj’s and the artistic director at RoXY – red.) who told her they were about to open a new club and she could start as a performer: ‘So I became the Roxy Princess! My shows were always over the top but that’s what made me famous. I’ve been yodeling out of my pussy, pulling meters of dirty laundry out of my vagina and putting loads of whipped cream cakes in places where the sun doesn’t shine’. 

The list of people Zu worked with during her RoXY days is endless and impressive. She had an instant click with Leigh Bowery, became one of Erwin Olaf’s models and gave birth to a pig in Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books: ‘I have the feeling it all kind of dropped in on me. I never looked for any of this to happen but people saw me, heard about me and that resulted in all those little assignments and performances. I loved doing all those things so one thing led to another. And when I was standing on that stage, seeing people watch me with those ecstatic eyes, I thought; well, it seems like I’m doing a good job.’ The once-in-a-lifetime experience that RoXY aimed for turned out to be a huge success. The interior got changed every six weeks and different artists, and the cabaretesque and extravagant shows gave the place a unique character. 

 

 

‘The RoXY burned down. Nobody got killed but Zu was the last person to leave the building. She was upstairs, doing her make-up and thinking she had a hot flash. Meanwhile the roof was on fire.’

‘One big family’ is an expression that comes with talking about the club: ‘We all did it for free but we were happy because we could drink all night long. We were all very glad to have a second home like that. It was always fun and always over the top. It wasn’t a place where you could spot your average go-go dancer, no, it always had to be bigger, more colorful, more eccentric’. Zu felt at home, in the company of like minded individuals and lost her heart in the performances – most of the time naked and shameless – she staged: ‘I’ve always been very at ease when it comes to being nude. I used to have an amazing body so it was worth to show off, yet the audience never quite knew what they saw. I didn’t used to be 100% woman so when I was doing a striptease act, there was always something in the way. If you know what I mean’. Zu got her final operation in ’87, in the first two RoXY years: ‘All in all it took me about 6 years before everything was in order so that was quite some time. Luckily that’s all over now so I’m already more than 20 years the most beautiful woman in Amsterdam!’. 

Pieter Giele, one of the club’s founders died in the spring of ’99. While celebrating his funeral on June 21st., sparks from fireworks ended up in the climate control system and burned down the club. Nobody got killed but Zu was the last person to leave the building. She was upstairs, doing her make-up and thinking she had a hot flash. Meanwhile the roof was on fire. The burning of the RoXY marked the end of an era and that kind of atmosphere was never to be found: ‘Let bygones be bygones, isn’t that what they say? You have to move on in your life. RoXY was there at exactly the right moment and place, yet times have changed now. Maybe times were more liberated back then and I don’t know why things like that don’t happen anymore. Nowadays everything is so clean and well behaved. Nevertheless, I do think the Roxy was the only place where such a thing was possible’. 

Fortunately the iconic Zu didn’t end up together with the club. Music has always been the love of her life so she’s working as a dj now: ‘I won an award for most sexy dj and I made a record with Les deux Electriques called ‘Je suis Zu’. More than 20 years later and Zu doesn’t begin to think of slowing down. She often wonders if people are going to get enough of her, yet they seem to be wanting more. She’s hosting a show on Pinq radio called ‘Tete a tete avec Zu’ and she’s writing a column for RAUW-blog: ‘Let me tell you something, I will always be the Queen of the RoXY, even after all these years. And I never even think about retiring. I guess I’m going to keep on doing things till I drop down dead. Whether they like it or not!’

 

www.zubrowka-international.nl

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Buck Angel

Buck Angel is a female-to-male transsexual and founder of Buck Angel Entertainment. As an adult actor, he was able to create a unique niche, calling himself “The Man With a Pussy”, as he had not had any genital surgery and still possessed a vulva…..

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Arie Boomsma

Arie Boomsma

He makes television shows for Dutch channel KRO. One of them is called ‘Uit de kast’ – Out of the Closet – in which he supports youngsters in their coming out. Striking a pose on the cover of a gay magazine is something he does without batting an eye…..

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Et Alors? magazine. A global celebration of diversity.

Holestar

Holestar

Holestar

Text JF. Pierets

 

Despite being a biological woman, she dresses as a super, fabulous, over the top version of a girl. So yes, she’s a drag artist. Yet not a queen or a faux queen; ‘there’s nothing fake about me!’ She prefers to be called a Tranny with a Fanny or Drag Goddess and her aesthetic is 80’s big hair, clashing colors, animal print, Divine and Jackie Beat. ‘I’m too freaky to be mainstream’. A conversation about expression, freedom, fun and a very long time spent in-front of a mirror.

 

I guess everyone starts with this question but nevertheless: the tranny with the fanny? 
I was Holestar, the artist at first. Being the Tranny with a Fanny was a gender bending idea born out of frustration with drag queens being misogynist and vile about women. Feminism gave women many fabulous freedoms but it killed off a lot of glamour. My aim was to reclaim over the top fabulousness and exaggerated femininity to the female body. I was initially called the ‘cock-in-a-frock-without-a-cock’ for a while but it’s a bit of a mouthful.

When did you realize you wanted to be a dragqueen? By the way, I’ve read it’s called Faux Queen? 
My American sisters call themselves Faux Queens but I’m not fake anything honey. I like the term Drag Goddess. A goddess is higher than a queen isn’t it? Being a drag starlet was supposed to be a one off art piece, but I met a DJ who wanted me to MC with him. He thought it was a good idea to workshop the idea in front of an audience and it took off. Eleven years later, I’m still spending hours in front of a mirror for art and the entertainment of others.

You ever considered surgery? 
Hell no. I don’t buy into the so-called western ideal of what someone is supposed to look like to be considered attractive. I like my transformations to be temporary. I’m full of imperfections but love who I am, lumps, bumps and all. Never say never though. There could come a time when I go for the full Wildenstein.

How do the male to female queens react on your appearance? 
Most of them are fine and ok with it as I tend to play and perform on the alternative scene where black and white gender expression is less of an issue. However there are a few girls who have been bitchy or aggressive, as if I’m stepping on their toes. They’re frequently the ones with no talent and or anything interesting to say. Que Sera Sera. 

I’ve seen your make-up tutorial for Beige and I wondered; who’s the girl behind the make-up.
I grew up all over England and left school with no qualifications as I’d discovered sex, drugs and dance music. I spent two years in the British army, worked as a professional dominatrix for ten years, discovered art, moved to Vienna, became the Tranny with a Fanny, moved to London and got a Fine Art Masters at Central St Martins. I’m now a DJ, writer, artist, singer, Mistress of Ceremonies, club promoter. Lover not a fighter.

 

‘Being the tranny with a fanny was a gender bending idea born out of frustration with drag queens being misogynist and vile about women.’

What do you do next to performing and making music? Do you have any hobbies or is everything Holestar related? 
Drag and creativity consumes so much of my time. Pretty much everything I’m interested in (art, film, LGBTQ issues, music, performance) is part of what I do as a performer so there’s not much left outside if it. I’m quite quiet in everyday life, an introverted extrovert. I love my dog, travel, watching trash TV, cake.

You’re one of the people behind Hot Laser. Can you tell me about the movie? 
I founded the documentary ‘Hot Mess/Dress As A Girl’, around six years ago. The East London alternative scene performs every year at the NYC Downlow at Glastonbury Festival and one year I thought; someone should be filming this. I approached my friend Colin Rothbart to direct a British version of Paris is Burning and we now have five years’ worth of footage that is currently being edited. We need a lot more funding to complete it though. It’s an honest film about how fabulous dressing up and performing can be, but also how human we are underneath it all. My aim is for at least one queer person to view the film, see that they’re not the only one who is different from heteronormative or mainstream gay society and that’s perfectly ok. They can be whoever they want to be, come through all manners of adversity to accept and be comfortable with whom they are.

Do you want to get a message out there?
Love yourself. Be the best you can be. Don’t be shady, be a lady. The biggest love affair you should ever have is with yourself. Queer people have come a long way in the west but there is still work to do. We need to stop bitching among ourselves and help, love and encourage each other more.

Lots of love…for everybody!

 

www.holestar.com

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Et Alors? magazine. A global celebration of diversity.