Stefan St-Laurent, curator at SAW Gallery, steps through The Bride of Palestine by Raafat Hattab. It is one of the works presented in Radical Drag, running until Nov. 18.
Imagine watching a video of a man standing in six-inch stiletto heels, wearing nothing but a transparent body suit and heavy makeup, with a massive chandelier attached to his body, wandering the streets of an old shanty town being demolished in South Africa.
This is just one of the pieces that is part of the first ever radical drag exhibition in Ottawa at SAW Gallery. The show is titled Radical Drag: Transformative Performance.
Twenty artists from all over the world – Ottawa; London; Stockholm, Sweden; and Jaffa, Israel – are taking part in the exhibition, which has generated a lot of traffic at the gallery.
Hundreds have attended so far, and many have lined up outside the front door at SAW on weekends to be among the first to get in and see the striking exhibits.
One of the attendees, Jesse Dillon Ward, says he found the exhibition intriguing.
“My first impression was that it was very colourful,” says Dillon Ward. “When you just walk in, you can hear very unusual sounds and clamorous noises. This is because there are three videos going on simultaneously, so you feel like you are really surrounded by the exhibition’s environment.”
Stefan St-Laurent, the curator at SAW, says it took a year and a half to put the show together.
“This show is about the complete freedom of sexual expression,” he adds. “This is the first time an exhibition like this is in Ottawa .”
The aim of the exhibition is to demonstrate the diversity and strength of radical drag.
“We really wanted to show the diversity within the radical drag movement. Some work is really hard-hitting, other works are playful. But most importantly, we really wanted to include empowering works.”
St-Laurent adds that the exhibition should challenge the conservative culture in Ottawa .
“We don’t get to see queer work very often because there is a conservative edge to Ottawa.
“We wanted to put together a show that would be a gift to the community and be a community-building exercise," he says.
“And Ottawa is a good city for that kind of discussion.”
The exhibition uses a variety of media. With the focus on performance art, many pieces are recorded videos that are played over and over again on large screens. There are also several handmade pieces – including a body suit and beadwork-decorated platform shoes – as well as photographic collages, such as A Day in the Life of a Bull-Dyke.
The exhibition is partially funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Melinda Mollineaux, the program officer in the visual arts section of the council, says that SAW Gallery is one of 93 artist-run centres that are operationally funded through its program.
“In terms of the landscape of organizations within the city, the SAW Gallery, through its programming, is really trying to carve out a unique niche for itself by providing work that is challenging and provocative,” says Mollineaux.
The exhibition explores sexuality and gender identity.
Cindy Stelmackowich, an art history instructor at Carleton University who specializes in this topic, says this has always been a hot issue.
“I think it’s almost dangerous to think that gender and sexuality are solid or fixed,” she says.
“One thing that contemporary art insists upon and does is point out their fluid nature.”
She adds that exhibitions that are similar to Radical Drag help educate local artists about their artistic counterparts, who are working on both the national and international stage.
Radical Drag runs until Nov.18, but St-Laurent plans to have other similar projects.
“SAW Gallery focuses on performance art and media art which is a strong bent in this show and, for sure, we will be presenting other challenging exhibitions in the future,” he says.