Exhibition Opening Event: Transformation Sequence

I’m an art writer, curator, art tutor, and artist based in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Previously, I co-directed the art gallery [Tacit], and I currently teach art classes at the Waikato Society of Art.

From my perspective of being non-binary trans, I also love the intricacies of gender and queer theory, with my Master’s thesis on transgender self-representation in contemporary moving image art.

This art series explores my gender transition, not as a physical journey, but as a spiritual one.

Here I use appropriated imagery from transformation scenes in 90s tv shows, with an overtone of kitsch, queer camp aesthetics, and nostalgia. In some works, I traced paint on my chest scars, fell forward onto the foil, my skin touching it like a kiss and leaving a mark.

Camp aesthetics are playful, healing, a production of queer social visibility ( Susan Sontag). My own scars are healed.

Instagram @ellie_lee_duncan
www.ellie-lee-duncan.com