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Reassign
Reassign
Text JF. Pierets Photos Claudia Gonzalez
Born in Chile, raised in Europe, and with an advanced training in photography, Claudia González has spent the last 2 years working on her project called Reassign.
In order to make this series, Gonzàlez joined forces with Mariela Castro’s sexuality and sexual diversity organization CINESEX, the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. Quite reluctant at first, they soon went along with the positive and humane intentions of the artist. Marta Maria Ramirez Havana, Cuban Journalist, specialized in gender and cultural journalism wrote about their meeting; ‘Claudia was armed with this camera and wanted to photograph trans people. She told me of her intentions and I felt a little bit scared. Showing a before and after like in the visual advertising that I have criticized so much for misleading, made me put on alert. (There are many photographers demanding Cuban trans girls to pose, looking badly for the exotic in the identities of non-conforming gender, and that only wallow in their poverty). But for the Chilean-Spanish photographer, coming from the world of fashion, the intention was different: to denounce the double moral that patriarchal societies intend to use to subdue people through a strict script about how the roles of man and women should be interpreted, as if there was a unique way of being one or the other.’
Gonzàlez herself definitely wanted to work with CINESEX. Because of them, a lot has changed when it comes to gender diversity in Cuba. Her first idea was to photograph a ‘Before and After’. To start from scratch and to take her time to follow it up. ‘But then I saw it was not only about tranvestites. There were numerous transexuals and drag queens with I thought should also be introduced in the project.’ The photographer states that, at first, she was very unlearned about the topic and actually could not see all the different gender types. But than again: ‘Who cares? They are all people so why do they have to stick to the gender they were given at birth?’ When the project got launched, Spanish artist and photographer José María Mellado wrote: ‘With Reassign, Claudia González has taken a step beyond her initial aim, achieving to join the significance and topicality of the best documentary photography with the aesthetics and exquisite handling that a work of art requires.
The project title refers to the designation applied to persons that have changed sex surgically – reassigned- and on the other hand disguises, by means of a cold euphemism the feeling, passion, suffering, and above all the desire of many people willing to have a clear sexual identity and the acceptance from others. By means of outstanding psychological portraits exhibited like diptychs, Claudia shares with us the complex inner life of people that have suffered the discrimination, double standards and rejection from our society and in many cases from their own family. Powerful and bittersweet stories that tell the struggle for their own sexual freedom. There’s no doubt that Reassign is one of those projects that will stay in memory and can help us to achieve a better understanding of the fight that many start to vindicate an universal right: gender identity.’
‘Gender identity as a human right is something that Gonzàlez regards as a higher purpose. Something in which she hopes to contribute.’
Gender identity as a human right is something that Gonzàlez regards as a higher purpose. Something in which she hopes to contribute with her Reassign series: ‘For me it’s important that people feel good about themselves. I don’t care what they do in bed and if they identify as a man or a woman. It’s an exercise for all of us, an opportunity to change your mind. I always say that I am not an activist but a photographer and an artist. But this was just something I felt that I needed to do. That we all should do.’ By releasing Reassign, Claudia re received e-mails from all over the world. Going from young transexuals, to e-mails from mothers who wanted to thank her for her efforts. But the project is not finished yet. In December she’s going back to Cuba and will add some more pictures to the series. ‘It took me 2 years to make the models trust me enough to do my work. But once they saw the pictures I was able to do everything. Everybody is very happy and grateful. It’s a great experience!’
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Bernhard Willhelm
Bernhard Willhelm
Text JF. Pierets Photos Courtesy of MOCA
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles presents the first American museum exhibition of the work of fashion designers Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus. Bernhard Willhelm 3000: When Fashion Shows The Danger Then Fashion Is The Danger, is a meditation on the future of commerce and a ‘thinking-forward exhibition’.
The designer sees the show as his response to the uniformity of consumerism in the 21st century as well as a forecast of the fashion experience in the 22nd century. Since the founding of his eponymous label in 1999 with Kraus, Willhelm has been moving in between chaos and diversity. In opposition to the minimalist designs that dominated runways in the 1990s, Willhelm’s designs are characterized by their outspoken visual language, which they transform and combine in an unparalleled way with juxtapositions between high and low culture. We caught Willhelm in a mood to talk about art, asking questions and hard-ons. Needless to say we loved it!
How are you?
Very good! The new collection arrived today.
Happy with the result?
O yes! It looks very experimental. This week I have to finish everything for the show at MOCA. It’s a solo show and we introduce the latest collection, which will also be presented in Paris by the end of the month. A collection about the future of fashion and the future of commerce. It’s about what people project on fashion and how fashion can look into the future.
The show is titled ‘When Fashion Shows The Danger Then Fashion Is The Danger’ and is your response to the uniformity of consumerism in the 21st century. Can you elaborate?
Fashion is a part of life and you have to deal with it. The interesting part of it is that it becomes more and more important. The perception of fashion, what it is versus what it was, has changed completely over the last 10 or 20 years. We all turned into educated consumers, which means that at a very young age we are somehow ‘educated’ on the products we want to buy. Or when it comes to the products that they tell us to buy. LA is therefore an interesting place because they are obsessed with image. It’s a place based on the entertainment industry, with the Oscars as the cherry on the cake. LA has established itself as the new fashion capital, highly important for image making, since those images are transported all over the world.
You relocated the Willhelm-team to Los Angeles. Has it been a big adjustment?
I came here just because of the difference between Europe and America. America is still the promised land but it’s also very doomed, yet for us Europeans, it’s a Franz Kafka kind of doomed. For me it’s maybe the most magical place to be. It brings a lot of new influences and you get new impressions on how Americans are. I’m currently based in Beachwood Canyon, which is exactly where the Hollywood sign is – I actually call it Hollyweed because there is a lot of smoking going on around here. Every morning I take a little hike and I see people posing in front of the sign so I’m actually living on a magic mountain. It’s an experiment: ‘Bernhard goes to Hollywood’.
You talk a lot about experiments.
That’s because each collection is an experiment. We work since 1999 and now people start to see the story, the big picture. Being a fashion designer is going into a cycle. The first seasons you’re the hot new kid on the block. But to hold that presumption and to continue being an actual fashion designer, that is not very easy. What you can see now, is that we have both ‘forward thinking collections’ and ‘experiments’. People do expect that. They come to us for the unexpected, and are gathering recognizable signature pieces from each collection. Compared to most fashion houses, we are not selling so much handbags and accessories, but for us it has always been the experimental products. We are actually selling clothes. Let’s say it’s a specialized group of people who are interested in us.
You are working for over 10 years now, what has changed overtime?
The most significant thing that happened in those 10 years is a certain kind of freedom. I have done Belgium and then Paris. A little bit of Mexico and now I moved the complete team here. I guess the most significant thing is that somehow we are a very free community on how to operate in fashion – The globalization of it all, since the products are produced both in Japan and for a little part in Belgium. The sunglasses are made in Berlin and the shoes are made in Spain. It’s a very abstract way of working since it all comes from different places, yet that’s the exact thing that makes us very free and gives us the possibility to travel. What also changed is that I recently realized that it takes a bit longer than usual to put your face in shape when you are 42.
In the show you give us a vision of an apocalyptic future. The year 3000, an era defined by ecological disaster and climate change. Is it your role as an artist, to ask questions?
It’s the role and beauty of every living person here on earth. If you take everything for granted it would be a little bit too easy.
You’re work is filled with sex and full of fun, but also signed by complexity and anarchism. You can say it’s happy and fucked up at the same time. It may be ironic but there is also a lot of humor involved. I work with different perceptions of what fashion eventually is. What makes you happy, what really pisses you off. There are issues on diversity, sexuality and there are controversial issues. I always think that people who feel that those elements don’t belong in fashion, are actually not preserving enough to be in fashion. Am I good enough to be in fashion? Maybe not. I don’t know. I guess it’s just about asking questions. And am I asking only happy questions? No! That would be too easy. I’m not only here to make people happy. I’m here to ask questions. Whether they like those questions or not, is a superficial side issue.
‘I work with different perceptions of what fashion eventually is. What makes you happy, what really pisses you off. There are issues on diversity, sexuality and there are controversial issues.’
I read you sell the most in Japan? How do you keep your balance towards customers: Japan versus America?
We have indeed a very big Japanese fan base. We even have fans – let’s call it collectors – who are actually putting our clothes on the wall. They are living in it. This is also the thought behind the expo, the question; why is fashion so important that it’s in a museum? So far I have done two museum shows, both in Antwerp and in Groningen. This is actually my 3rd solo show. It also means that I’m doing fashion exhibitions in museums at a young age. That also means that my creations are very much liked as art.But to return to your original question: People here are completely obsessed by fashion. So in a way it’s a bit like in Japan. We also opened a shop here in Beverly Hills and there seems to be the same amount of interest in both places so I don’t have to adjust.
Does fashion belong in a museum?
Fashion is all about decision-making and about how I want to be perceived by people who go to a museum. You also reach a much larger public. People who normally have nothing to do with fashion, go to a museum because they want to see something interesting. And since you don’t want to bore people, you’re giving them a different perception about what fashion can be.
You collaborate with a lot of artists. Is that a must when it comes to your creative process?
Working with artists is about stimulation and inspiration. And appreciation. I have a team that stimulates me because of its group-energy and because those people don’t always agree with me. That energy and that clash of taste is the most important thing when you are a creative person.
You also worked with one of our favorite photographers, Lukas Beyeler, for your 2012 lookbook. Lukas is, among other things, very interested in gay porn stars and drag. How about you?
The gay community is very important to talk to. I talk to them in my own language and they get turned on by it – or I get turned on by it – and that’s already enough. I don’t want to intellectualize porn because porn is just porn. We used porn stars as models to present our collection. For me it was just fashion and image making, it had nothing to do with porn. And maybe by doing that, I’m changing the perception of the porn star. I think that’s very exciting. And eventually I get a hard on. When Bernhard wakes up with a hard on, it’s a very happy day.
Good for you!
It is! Because when there is an erection there is energy. It’s all about stimulation. You don’t want to bore people by being a prude.
What makes your world rock?
My work. Fashion is about decision-making. Whether you have a certain talent or whether you’re good with your hands or your eyes. And since a lot of people are saying that I have that talent, I feel privileged.There are so many people who want to do this job yet so few people have the chance to do so. I got that chance and I consider it a gift.
More crazy, fun and beautiful work on the future wish-list?
Blue jeans and total wealth. I do like the idea of blue jeans with a gold stitching!
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Rurru Mipanochia
Rurru Mipanochia
Text JF. Pierets Artwork Rurru Mipanochia
Rurru Mipanochia is a 25 year old, Mexican illustrator. Her drawings represent ancient pre-Hispanic sexual deities, transvestites and transseksuals, in order to promote dissident sexualities and to create a visual questioning about beauty.
Can you tell me about your childhood?
I had a very nice childhood. My parents where really lovely to my sister and I. Mexico city is not always the safest place to live so they took good care of us and always tried to be open-minded and talk unprejudiced. Sometimes they where a bit too overprotecting but they were really afraid something like that happed to us. At school I was very shy and I never spoke a lot. I was a lonely girl-boy-thing. I was always tangled in my own imaginary world but I was always smiling. When I got to High school, I finally started being more outgoing and made lots of friends.
You are born and raised in Mexico but currently living in Berlin? How’s that for a cultural difference?
The truth is I really, really like Berlin. Just like Mexico City it’s a big metropolis, but with much less noise. The noise issue is still under my skin because I’m a very messy person and I talk very loud, so it’s funny that I feel at home here. I feel at ease and love the spirit of the city.
How did you end up in Berlin?
Well, I thought about that, but I don’t know! Can you believe that? I just know that the first time I visited Berlin, I fell in love with it.
Your illustrations are based on the representation of she-males and pre-Hispanic deities. Do elaborate.
Most of my drawings represent ancient pre-Hispanic sexual deities like Tlazoltéotl, goddess of sexuality, Macuilxochtl, god’s pleasure and Huehuecóyotl, god of sexuality. And Mictlantecuhtli, in relation to the definition given by George Bataille on orgasm, talking about it as a ‘tiny death’. I also try to illustrated some pre-Hispanic rites of sexual nature that Huastecos carried out. This civilization being the most sexual of all Mesoamerica. I draw transvestites, transsexuals, and sometimes characters wearing a strap on. I try to promote dissident sexualities and inviting the viewer not to feel guilty if they want to experience their sexuality in a different way of what is so-called ‘normal’. My characters used orthopedics and most are amputees. They have pimples, are very thin, have hair or are fat. I’m trying to created a visual questioning about beauty.
‘I want to show that people don’t have to feel bad about having deviating tastes or different sexual fantasies than others. I want to point out that there are many different types of bodies yet all of them can cause desire and give pleasure.’
You don’t have to be beautiful in order to be sexy?
Not at all! Or it depends on how you define beauty. Beauty is very, very subjective. I think beauty goes beyond what is imposed as such. Everything can be beautiful, ‘ugliness’ can be beautiful.
What’s your fascination with amputations?
In Mesoamerican artifacts are several characters to be found that show absence or deformities in their lower extremities. It results in moral and transgressed behavior, mainly of sexual character. For the Nahuas as well as for other Mesoamerican groups, the body was of great importance and constituted a language that could only be read by the condition of the person. A twisted foot – or the absence of one – was a metaphor of sexual transgression. Examples are, amongst others, Tezcatlipoca, Cihuateotl and Xolotl.
You’re drawing girls with penises and boys with tits. What are your thoughts when it comes to gender?
Everyone is free to play with his or her own gender, it doesn’t matter if you have a pussy or a cock.
Your work is both funny, disturbing and you have to check a few times to get the whole picture. What are you aiming for? Do you have a certain message?
I want to show that people don’t have to feel bad about having deviating tastes or different sexual fantasies than others. I want to point out that there are many different types of bodies yet all of them can cause desire and give pleasure. I would love us all to try to accept everyone, just the way they are. Just the way we are. We’re not crazy if we don’t meet the standard criteria.
What’s your personal fetish?
Scars, leg braces, socks and boots make me go crazy!
In an interview you once said: I’m 25 and I love Nutella. How can someone sounding so innocent make these sexual, in your face, illustrations?
Hahahaha! Well, I do love Nutella very much! And, I don’t know… when people meet me for the very first time, they ask me the same question. They can’t believe that such a sweet and nice looking girl makes such drawings. Maybe it’s because I have always been very childish and look a bit stupid. But I like that, I like talking about sex in that innocent and funny way, like children do.
In what way did your work evolve?
It’s a gradual evolution. I began making copies of Egon Schiele and Aubrey Beardsley’s work – bad copies by the way – when I was about 18. Later on I started trying to make my own drawings based on what I read or imagined. Sometimes the inspiration came from friends’ sexual fantasies.
A weird question to someone of 25, but what does the future look like?
I always think: you only live once so why not do all that is forbidden? Of course without harming others, that goes without saying.
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Meg Allen
Meg Allen
Text JF. Pierets Photos Meg Allen
In her series ‘Butch’, photographer Meg Allen shows a variety of women who fall under the category of more masculine than feminine. Over the years people have been given different names to lesbians, and being butch is yet another flavor of women. Another flavor of lesbian, which Allen captures in a very intense and fierce image. Her women are beautiful, strong and aren’t afraid to show their true colors. Honest, might be another way of putting it.
What’s in a name?
Nothing really. The series was something I almost didn’t want to define. It isn’t a stereotypical thing and it isn’t just about short hair, or swagger, or a tomboy. For me butch means ‘on the masculine side’. That’s it really. Nothing more and nothing less. Just another categorization that can share definition with any other term within the umbrella of masculinity. It’s what gender ends up being when you try to define it; an exaggerated version of itself.
You like to let your pictures speak for themselves?
Exactly. I’m still exploring who I am as a photographer and an artist. This series is a chance to work within the queer community in a different way. And honestly, in the beginning it was just me, practicing my photography. Because I wanted to do portraits for professionals, I started asking my friends if they could sit for me. Yet the more people I photographed, the more I realized that I was capturing something I hadn’t seen before in art galleries or magazines. I put them up on my wall starting with 3 photographs, then 10, then 15. And all of a sudden I wanted to fill the whole room. Just to see what it felt like to look at a bunch of people who looked like me. Putting them together so concentrated, made me want to show the uniqueness of butch women in a way that glamorizes them in their natural habitat. The women aren’t mainstream yet their life could be anybody’s.
Is gender a fashionable thing?
I think people do wear gender like they wear fashion. For the most part everybody is somewhere in between both of those things. When you for example dress up for the opera or the ballet, you become this sophisticated, cultured, wealthy seeming thing. And that’s not just who you are, but it’s who you are in that moment. It’s so frivolous yet so important because people dress up every day. Some people say they don’t care but that’s also a statement. It’s part of their philosophy. I never wanted to wear dresses and that was a choice because I didn’t felt like I was a person who wears dresses. I was more adventurous. I felt handsome rather than pretty and strong versus coy. When you dress yourself, you’re making a statement. So I think it lies somewhere in there, constantly shifting and fluid.
Is it a sign of the times? That gender is getting more fluid?
Absolutely! I think it has been influenced by a lot of equality movements between the sexes and even between races. There is no hierarchy of human, where women are second rate to men. But ask anybody and they will give you their own definition of what it means to be male vs. female. Gender is such a complex thing. On one hand you have a description of your sex, your genitals, but attributes of masculine and feminine are something different. Gender becomes the more complicated version of whether you are man or woman. Americans have this exaggerated form of male and female. The men are hyper-masculine, rugged, handsome, strong and aren’t encouraged to cry. Yet in many parts of Europe, men are allowed to be who they are, rather than forced in a stereotype of what a man should be. I have a friend who is from Denmark and she was saying that they don’t have a word for butch, because gender isn’t strictly masculine males and feminine female. I thought that was both interesting and difficult to imagine. That there is no need to have this strict definition because gender actually isn’t polarized. I need to add that I’ve never been there, so I have to take her word for it.
You take photographs of your friends. You have a lot of friends…
Well, it’s a big community here. I would say the first 30 people are definitely friends and people I’ve known over the years. Then when I had a show at the Lexington club in San Francisco, the series really sort of took off and a lot of people contacted me to be part of the project. There’s a big scene in San Francisco and the community here is huge. You really have to come over, it will blow your mind.
How does it feel to be gay in San Francisco?
Being gay in San Francisco hasn’t been a big deal since the 80’s, we’re super lucky to live in such a mecca. The straight people aren’t as phased by sexuality in San Francisco. People in San Francisco are more liberal about just about everything. As a country, we’re still behind on gay marriage but it’s going to the Supreme Court and they are about to make a ruling for it to be federally recognized across the US. So as far as the gay movement is concerned federally, things are changing quite a bit. That said, I feel very lucky to be born a gay person in a straight privileged world. I feel it gives us license to look differently at tradition and the way society wants you to be. It allows us to reinvent ourselves constantly, because there is no set path that we have to follow. Do we decide to marry? Do we duck the trends of fashion so we can feel more who we are and how we want to be seen in the world? I think most straight people don’t have that luxury. They are sort of guided along, ushered in to well-worn and accepted paths. Later on in life they might be disappointed because they didn’t realize there was so much more to choose from. Being gay pushes you out of certain traditions and suddenly reveals that the world is actually bigger than your own community’s traditions and is this crazy amazing place to explore. There are so many traditions that you can adopt from. So many other cultures and countries that can make you happy. When you are gay you are not just trudging along blindly, following the person in front of you, just because that’s what you’re supposed to do. You invent yourself by making your own choices.
You’re still exploring who you are as a photographer. Is there a change you’re going to specialize in queer subjects?
The fact that I’m gay and very alternative, gender wise will always influence my work. I won’t necessarily specialize in it but it will always be present in my work. I do love this theme though, and I love to make queer culture visible. One of the most amazing things people told me after seeing my ‘Butch’ series, was this straight guy who said he loved watching my pictures, because he never had the chance to really look. He always felt uncomfortable about staring at people who looked different and this gave him the opportunity to just stare and take it all in. That’s what I love most about art. It has the capacity to take you on this journey and tell you a story about something you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. You’re able to loose yourself, as you’re looking at these other people, identifying with them and recognizing differences. There is this universal feeling of the human condition and that’s the part that I aim for; combining differences with familiarity, and making it not such a rigid rectilinear definition.
‘I feel very lucky to be born a gay person in a straight privileged world. I feel it gives us license to look differently at tradition and the way society wants you to be. It allows us to reinvent ourselves constantly, because there is no set path that we have to follow.’
You also consider it a time document.
A lot of people responded to these portraits, a lot of people felt seen and it’s a record in time about butch women feeling safe enough to do this. To let people look at them. There used to be a lot of violence against butch women, and the gay community in general, in the past and actually still to this day. Butches would get harassed a lot and therefor didn’t want any attention put on them. They didn’t want to be seen and just tried to blend into the world of masculinity and live their lives. The first people I asked to sit for me were really unsure but after they saw what I was doing, they could see that it was bigger than themselves. That I would make them feel comfortable and illuminate them in the proper light. I think it was the right time to make this series.
This project has gotten a lot of attention, what’s next?
My next project is shooting portraits of transgender FTMs. Interesting thing is, that some people I’ve shot for ‘Butch’, also want to sit for this next one. I love that. It means they define themselves in multiple ways. Needless to say it’s going to be a completely different type of project and portraits, but I like the multiple identity factor. Definitions and stereotypes lose their power when you really try to nail it down so I aim to nuance my photographs. You can see that butch is not only about masculinity. It’s not because you are butch that you can’t be soft or fashionable.
I read somewhere that you want to make a book when you are at 117 portraits. What’s with the number?
I was very influenced by Annie Leibovitz as a young photographer. She did a lot of photographs for Vanity Fair and I love the way that is able to capture people. I admire that she could almost get into somebodies soul and bring it out in a picture. That’s an amazing thing to do. I think that’s also what I like about being a photographer. I’m not very good at bullshitting. Going to a bar and chitchatting just isn’t my thing. I’m not funny, so that doesn’t help either. Even on the first casual introduction I get right into it and ask people what their life is all about, what they love and what bothers them. Sometimes that’s awkward when you are meeting someone for the first time. A bit too intense maybe, but when you are photographing somebody and they are willing to open themselves up to that, you sort of get to go on this journey together and go deeper than any other random contact. You get intimate in this very artistic way. You’re both human and into this together. Leibovitz did that in her pictures and she’s been a huge influence to me. The fact that she was able to go in and really look at somebodies personality, bringing it out in a way that you have the feeling you know the person on the photograph. She has a book called ‘Women’ and I love the fact that she spent an entire book on just women. Her book is about all kinds of women; working-class, high profile, you name it. And…it contains 117 portraits.
How important is it for you to make this book?
Much more important than I thought it would be. Maybe I helped making a historical record of what the gay movement was doing around this time. I think that’s important to put in a book. To capture gay history in California about butch women at this time.
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