There’s no query of the artist’s energy right here, or her want for it. The exhibition is called for the Prince George, a sponsored housing advanced for individuals with HIV/AIDS the place Dzubilo lived from 2000 till her dying in 2011. Born in Connecticut in 1960, the artist grew to become a fixture in New York’s East Village artwork scene after shifting to town in 1982, performing with the Blacklips Efficiency Cult and the band Transisters. After her AIDS analysis in 1987, she centered on advocacy for HIV care and prevention and assist for transgender individuals.
The Prince George Drawings facilities diaristic works on paper from 2008 to 2011 that narrate her life as a transgender lady residing with HIV. Some have drawings, others are purely textual content, however all have an intimate tone, as if Dzubilo is talking to us immediately. She addresses each private obstacles, like bedbugs on the Prince George or her therapy by medical suppliers, and broader social points, such because the pathologizing and exploitation of trans ladies and the debilitating unwanted side effects of HIV drugs.
Chloe Dzubilo, “Untitled (Stronger Than Life Itself)” (2008), ink on paper
It could appear that Dzubilo was making these drawings way back, but it surely was already greater than 20 years after the AIDS epidemic started to devastate queer communities in the US, inflicting politicians and fashionable tradition to double down on homophobia and transphobia, and round 40 years after the Stonewall riots introduced LGBTQ+ civil rights to the streets. Dzubilo confronted challenges that ought to have been historical past by 2008, but persist at present.
“The Most Inappropriate and Ridiculous Questions” (2008), an inventory of “dont’s” to say to trans ladies, stands out exactly for that reason. All you must do is watch TV, go on social media, or discuss to random individuals, and chances are high you’ll hear a few of these feedback. I gained’t repeat these which are blatantly offensive, however even apparently lesser offenses are insidious of their disrespect, reminiscent of referring to individuals by their deadname and utilizing terminology like “passing,” which presupposes an ordinary of what constitutes a lady (or man).
Chloe Dzubilo, “The Most Inappropriate and Ridiculous Questions” (2008), ink on paper
As co-curator Nia Nottage suggests in an accompanying essay, the notion of “passing” has a double that means: the colloquial sense of showing to be cisgender or straight and passing as bodily wholesome. Each reinforce stigmas that depend on a baseline of normativity, and collectively, they expose the connection between bodily well being and gender- or sexual (hetero)normativity.
None of that is uncharted territory, however Dzubilo takes it on with distinctive readability and frankness. One cartoon-like drawing data an trade in an emergency room between the artist and hospital employees who name her “it” and “freak” and refuse her use of the ladies’s lavatory. The most important work within the present, the 89-inch-tall (226 cm) “Untitled (Stop Pathologizing Me)” (2011), depicts a headless human physique sketched on yellow paper, with the title written on the high. Alongside the determine is the textual content: “It’s 2011. Transsexualism in the DSM4 is still considered a mental illness.” (Actually, the Diagnostic and Statistical Handbook of Psychological Problems solely eliminated “gender identity disorder” in 2017, changing it with “gender dysphoria.”)
Chloe Dzubilo, “Untitled (Emergency Care)” (2008), ink on paper
The drawings additionally allude to the ensuing suppression when individuals advocate for themselves quite than wait for presidency packages to advocate on their behalf. “Untitled (Fashionista on the Cross)” (2008) pairs a drawing of a human determine atop a crucifix with the textual content: “Sanctify the transperson. Fabulous. Then crucify them if they don’t cooperate with others’ agendas.” Implicit in this can be a critique of the systemic condemnation of those that don’t adjust to their society’s entrenched gender- and heteronormative roles, which performs out not solely in specific discrimination but additionally in subpar residing situations and prohibitive healthcare prices. (Although the main focus of the exhibition is AIDS treatment, the identical may be stated of a lot gender-affirming care, even with medical health insurance, then as now.)
Private voices make a distinction. Dzubilo’s accounts dissolve the gap between life and artwork and current viewers along with her on a regular basis experiences of discrimination, disenfranchisement, and residing with an epidemic — confronting many with these realities, however commiserating with others. One good thing about internet hosting the present at a sympathetic nonprofit artwork house like Participant Inc. (whose board of administrators consists of pioneering LGBTQ+ artists Justin Vivian Bond and Vaginal Davis) is that it ensconces Dzubilo’s life and legacy in an setting of care and compassion. Ideally, a catalog would accompany the present and be distributed broadly sufficient that various audiences — encompassing individuals who won’t ever make it to the gallery and don’t have any energetic stake in the subject material — would encounter it.
The work gained’t communicate to everybody, however Dzubilo’s battles for ample healthcare and residing situations, and sure, her energy, will resonate with sudden audiences. As rights and respect for LGBTQ+ individuals regress within the US, any step ahead is a rallying cry.
Chloe Dzubilo, “Untitled (Fashionista on the Cross)” (2008), ink on paper
Chloe Dzubilo, “Untitled (Surrender)” (2008), ink on paper
Chloe Dzubilo, “Untitled (Stop Pathologizing Me)” (2011), paint marker, coloured pencil ink on craft paper
Chloe Dzubilo, “Untitled (Full Life Growing)” (2009), ink on paper
Chloe Dzubilo, The Prince George Drawings continues at Participant Inc. (116 Elizabeth Avenue, Ground One, Decrease East Aspect, Manhattan) by means of July 20. The exhibition was curated by Alex Fleming and Nia Nottage.
Gavilán Rayna Russom’s Oh Stay, a reside digital sound work, will happen at Participant Inc. on July 16 at 7:30pm.
