Issue Date: 9/21/2006, Posted On: 9/21/2006

TransNation
Jacob Anderson-Minshall

Butch-femme art of a dandy

"A real dandy would never ask permission to be a dandy," insists genderqueer artist Chris "Jackadandy" Carr*h*r. "One must simply claim it, and then have the style to carry it off," hy states, actively ignoring the indignation of other self-described dandies who claim a working-class, 50-something female-bodied butch can never be one.

"Not everyone can pull it off," the former San Franciscan — who prefers the pronouns hy and hys — contends of the "gender trouble" inherent in being a dandy. "But if you can, then you get to define the territory for yourself. It’s a self-invention, a creative existence."

Carr*h*r describes hys current series of pastel paintings — love full of life, showing in Joshua Tree, Calif.’s Art Queen Gallery until Nov. 28 — as having a visibly genderqueer perspective.

"[I] summoned a dynamic of masculine and feminine without, for the most part, portraying conventions of gender. Polarities and dualities abound in the paintings, but so do resolutions — dynamic resolutions. For example, penetration is a frequent theme, but the penetration exists as a reciprocal of a surrounding force of active reception."

"To me, this flaming shape is a phallic impulse within female genitalia," Carr*h*r says, explaining hys painting the blue-ball’d butch (depicting an orange flame between two blue disks). The work’s title is borrowed from lyrics by hys girlfriend — a frequent muse. "I love a femme, and I [am] honest about it," hy says.

"There are parts of me that are really only evoked by the proximity of a femme. If there isn’t a femme in the picture, those parts have little need of description or expression. At those times, does that part of my identity [exist]?" Carr*h*r muses.

Hy believes that picking an identity can be both powerful and dangerous. It can lead to what Carr*h*r calls the "citadel of limitation."

"A citadel is a fortress to protect territory — in this case, the territory of identity. The problem with a citadel is, it not only keeps the enemy out, it keeps you in. There’s no room for movement. And where there is no movement, there is no life. An identity can feel like home, and that’s important. But as a person grows, one hopes that their sense of themselves deepens and extends … Otherwise, they become imprisoned by the limitations of the identity they’ve settled into."

At home identifying as genderqueer, Carr*h*r (www.jackadandy.net) declares that hy has no interest in medical transition. "Medical models, of course, have their place, [but] my own sensations of difference are not so located in the physical sphere and not effectively approached medically."

The artist argues that there’s something both seductive and scary about the dandy role. "The dandy is playing with the traditional female role of attracting while at the same time maintaining a masculinity. Throw in a little power dynamic, a little erotic of class difference, some aesthetic creativity…"

Hy also believes that masculine and feminine energies are artificially separated.

"I feel that there are polar energies that exist all around us. In the West we tend to place these energies along a straight line or spectrum, one end male/masculine, the other female/feminine. Flat. Straight. Two-dimensional. And before you know it that line flips to the vertical and is being used as a cudgel to beat someone with. The straight line becomes a value indicator, and you have a hierarchy of power."

Carr*h*r prefers visualizing feminine/masculine as elements in a fully dimensional universe in which bodies move towards and away from one another all the time: "You can’t easily discern an orientation, and every one has their own up and their own down, but all the other bodies out there have energy that reacts with yours in some way. And some of them have a pull you can’t resist."

The genderqueer artist believes that for society to truly honor feminine-masculine energies would take "dumping" patriarchy.

"We live under a sociopolitical system that is based on the subjugation and containment of the feminine. Until we’re free of that system, any gender movement will be criminalized. [When] there are political values placed on feminine and masculine, all of our feelings about [gender] must be in reaction to those imposed values. I personally find hope in the leadership of femmes, who I see as people who are living and championing their feminine from the strength of a tremendous self-awareness."

Carr*h*r is already at work on hys next artistic endeavor, which hy describes as "about claims of territory in the high desert." It will premiere March 2007 at the Artists Gallery in Twentynine Palms, Calif.