Arts :: Arts And Culture
Transformative art by Scott Kearnan
Arts EditorWednesday Apr 22, 2009Art, especially photography, is often regarded as a mirror of reality. Sure, sometimes it’s a funhouse mirror: skewering, modifying, diminishing or enlarging. But Jess Dugan doesn’t just want to reflect reality. She wants to change it.
"I used to do more strictly activist work," says Dugan, a photographer and organizer of An Evening of Trans Art and Activism, which takes place in Easthampton on April 30, just before the weekend kickoff of Northampton Pride. "But I feel like my role of making images of the trans community is also an activist role. It’s a political one. I hope it provides a face to the community that other people can see and understand, that the trans community and queer community [is made up of] people like any other."
Locally, the trans community has certainly been receiving added political attention lately, especially with House Bill 1728 - colloquially the trans rights bill - garnering contention on Beacon Hill between LGBT activists and a vehement opposition, led by The Massachusetts Family Institute, looking to derail them.
"Absolutely," says Dugan, when asked if the current discourse surrounding the trans community served as an impetus to organizing the event. The art show started coming together after a conversation with Jennifer Levi of the Transgender Rights Project of GLAD, she says, which is cosponsoring the event alongside the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, MassEquality, and Bay State Stonewall Democrats.
"Jennifer approached me to put together an event that was an art show and a community event," explains Dugan. "It’s important to stay involved within the trans community and the fine art community. They’re oddly separate, in a way."
Dugan, who holds a degree in photography from Massachusetts College of Art, agrees with the suggestion that art exposing trans artists and subjects is hard to find. "I don’t think there’s tons in the Boston area," she says. "There are a number of trans artists working with the trans community, but it’s a matter of putting it all together and getting it out there."
I hope it provides a face to the community that other people can see and understand, that the trans community and queer community [is made up of] people like any other. For her contribution to An Evening of Trans Art and Activism, Dugan will exhibit work from The Trans(Gender) Series, a collection of photographs of transgender subjects that she began working on in 2005. In fact, her very first piece for the series documents the early stage of her own transition: "Self-Portrait with Mom" features the photographer and her mother standing topless, side by side.
"I took that in January 2005," she recalls. "It was right after I had ’top surgery,’ and I was documenting myself and what I was going through."
It’s the only personal image that Dugan included in The Trans(Gender) Series. "In the beginning, I think it was largely about me trying to figure out what I was doing and understand my own process," she says. "As I got comfortable with myself, it definitely morphed into something else."
The evening also features work from another trans artist, Andrew Taylor. Taylor’s work also offers a window on the trans community, says Dugan. Although in a fine contrast to Dugan’s black and white photography, Taylor’s pieces invoke sprays of colorful graffiti and street art.
Besides an opportunity to glimpse fine art, Dugan hopes that An Evening of Trans Art and Activism will provide a forum for conversation and contemplation with regard to LGBT politics. Her art isn’t her only form of advocacy: in fact, she’s also been invited to provide an artist talk at the Trans Health Conference in Philadelphia this June.
But by holding up a photo to her audiences, Dugan has the potential to also hold up that artistic mirror.
"I hope people will put a human face to the issues," she says.
"An Evening of Trans Art and Activism" takes place on Thursday, April 30 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Apollo Grill (116 Pleasant St., #119, Easthampton). For more information on Jess Dugan and the event, visit jessdugan.com.
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