Genderosity: a show curated by gender non-conforming artist Donald C. Shorter Jr on the process of self discovery through drag.

Superstellina2012. (2014) Grace Jones: La Vie En Rose (Show Live-Full Version+HQ).[Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0JPHrgZBo. [Accessed 27 November 2017]

Drawing inspiration both from legendary gender non-conforming artists Grace Jones, David Bowie and from the iconic film Mommie Dearest (1981) , Shorter Jr. explores gender identity through the medium of embodying a female persona (Francesca).

This project was created during a residency at the Pompidou Centre in Paris together with a video artist as an outcome of his workshops on transformation.

Genderosity resonates with my project as it was mainly inspired by Butler’s theory of gender performativity and by the dominant role that Leigh Bowery had in shaping club kids culture: the process of discovering the self embodied by the artist is clearly expressed by the continuous shift between the male and female identity during the show.

That’s an excerpt of the artist taking about his inspiration for the project:

‘I also really started to look at the writings of Judith Butler. You know, she raises questions of what is gender and discusses how gender is performed. I kind of took the idea of taking drag performance as a way to talk about gender performance. So, I put together all of these different ideas and concepts, and I really started to breakdown a way to talk about not conforming to societal gender norms and how that’s affected my life.’

(2014, available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ2VS0OqtOc).

• Clarke, D. (2014) ‘BWW Interviews: Donald C. Shorter Talks Genderosity’, Broadway World Off-Off-Broadway, [Online] Available from: https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/article/BWW-Interviews-Donald-C-Shorter-Talks-GENDEROSITY-2014061 [Accessed 27 November 2017].
• Mommie Dearest (1981) Directed by Frank Perry [Film]. New York: Paramount Productions.
• MovieClips. (2011). No Wire Hangers – Mommie Dearest (6/9) Movie CLIP (1981) HD. [Online Video]. 10 October 2011. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUkE9qaVgmo. [Accessed 27 November 2017].