GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS QUEERS : JORDAN REZNICK

x, Ithaca, New York, 2018. Archival pigment print, 42 x 56 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

 
Thank You for the Chonies by Rob Fatal  (limited edition writing)

The title of the project references Mathew Brady’s nineteenth century “Gallery of Illustrious Americans” that made the act of sitting for one’s portrait a moral act of nation-building for white Americans. As a counter-archive, these portraits intervene in the normalizing power of typical cultural icons. Impudent gazes command the respect due to gender outlaws. Gentle gestures invite us to sense the fragility of human life. My hope is that they present the dignity of trans experience without sacrificing the strangeness and ordinariness that characterizes each of us.  —Jordan Reznick

This project is generously funded by the Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission.