J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Cai Quirk
Episode #59, Summary
Transcendence: Queer Restoryation is a modern allegory inspired by a self-portrait series.
Episode Notes
Cai Quirk deeply explores genderqueer self-portraiture in an original image creation and story formation orchestration. A phantasmagorical world unfurls, as six evolutionary text and image sections weave a mythical interdependency of body, spirit and nature. The result is an invitation of belonging for all beings and their fluid becoming with a gracious welcoming of honor and respect.
In this conversation, Cai discusses, among other things:
The queer body in art history
Deconstructing gender realities
Making myth aka writing new stories
Children of ambiguity
Image and story as an invitation
Intertwining elements
Accessibility
Neo pronouns
The fluidity of transness
Listening beyond oneself
Referenced in the episode
In Lieu of Flowers by Caleb Cole
Society for Photographic Education
She/He/They/Me: An Interactive Guide to the Gender Binary by Robyn Ryle
Aperture 218, “Queer” (Spring 2015)
Art & Queer Culture by Catherine Lord & Richard Meyer
Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism and Self-Representation edited by Whitney Chadwick
Female Masuclinity by Jack Halberstam
Queering the Muse: Identity and Desire in the photography of Lissa Rivera, The Trout Gallery
The Weight of our Living: On Hope, Fire Escapes, and Visible Desperation by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Lesie Feinberg
Omnigender: a Trans-Religious Approach by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
The Man Who Was a Woman and Other Queer Tales from Hindu Lore by Devdutt Pattanaik