O
n May 9, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch delivered a powerful speech contextualizing North Carolina’s new discriminatory House Bill 2 within the historic struggle for civil rights in this country.
Less than two weeks earlier, the Thunder-Sky, Inc. gallery in Northside hosted an exhibition opening with several performances throughout the night that celebrated the group of people who — thanks to the aforementioned bill — are currently struggling for their basic human rights in America today: transgender people.
Radically Visible at Thunder-Sky (closing June 11) features the work of interdisciplinary artists Antonio Adams, Sky Cubacub, Craig Matis and Lindsey Whittle, and is a testimony to the lives and voices of people who do not or cannot conform to traditional societal identities.
The exhibition got its name from a 26-page manifesto written by the Chicago-based Cubacub.
A self-identified “Gender Queer Person of Color,” Cubacub founded Rebirth Garments, a clothing and accessories line for a full spectrum of genders, sizes and abilities, while still in college at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
Cubacub is known for working in chainmaille, a type of armor-looking, mesh metal jewelry. One look at the meticulous jewelry, accessories and clothing the artist made specifically for each model speaks volumes to the metaphorical connotations of being empowered via bodily armature.
Whittle, who, like Cubacub went to SAIC, also works with fashion and performance as a medium (like their professor, superstar artist Nick Cave).
Also a co-owner of Pique Gallery in Covington, Whittle says she introduced Cubacub to Thunder-Sky curators and founders Keith Benjamin and Bill Ross because it was one of her favorite galleries in town, and she knew they’d be a good fit.
“They pulled Antonio and I into it because we all love to celebrate people,” she says.
Adams works mostly in sculpture and painting, but for years has worn an elaborate felt, glitter and fabric paint costume to art openings. He routinely dresses up models in brightly colored wigs and glittery makeup for photo shoots prior to painting them — not to mention painting himself dressed in costume in his own pieces.
Performance and fashion are crucial concepts for Adams’ aesthetic, and this exhibition seems to have really given him a chance to explore those ideas via different media.
Whittle, Adams and Cubacub collaborated on several pieces for the show, including large-format, brightly colored photographs of the three artists styled by one another and taken by photographer Dustin Schleibaum.
The images are equally quirky and serious.
One of Whittle’s neon-colored, gravity-defying hook and loop tape sculptures graces the ceiling in a corner of the gallery, and she created a new piece for the show that featured digital images of her Velcro™ work, printed onto fabric and cut into new shapes.
“So I’m inhabiting the same body of work,” Whittle explains, “but in a different way.”Whittle and Cubacub fabricated several of Adams’ original clothing designs, to which the artist then added his own personal touch, decorating some with puffy paint and fabric markers and using unconventional materials like mesh from a bag of oranges to replicate the look of millinery netting on a wide-brimmed hat.Adams has always employed unusual objects to decorate his person, like a necklace made from glow sticks and laser-pointers, and he is fearless in his use of found materials.Cleveland-based artist Matis has a dozen-pieced wall installation that combines text-heavy visuals with an original song, and his likewise brightly colored interdisciplinary work is a fitting complement (if not much more serious in tone) to the work of the other three artists. His large-scale collages (some with moving parts) tell the frustrations and fears of transgender people, whom the artist interviewed and researched. Matis says in his personal statement that although he is not a trans-identifying person, he aims to be an ally.During opening night performances, Cubacub and Adams dressed a beautifully diverse group of models in their designs, engaged audience members in a free-for-all dance party and boogied down the catwalk themselves. Painted faces smiled in ecstasy as bodies twirled in brightly colored materials, flocked with sparkly and see-through armature — heady from the freedom to inhabit one’s own body in ways that many of the participants had never done. Such a simple yet politically charged act, having dominion over one’s body — what an appropriate truth for artists to explore during a time when legislative forces seek to restrict those freedoms. If visibility is empowerment, then these artists are most certainly radical.
RADICALLY VISIBLE, featuring artists Antonio Adams, Sky Cubacub, Craig Matis and Lindsey Whittle, is on view through June 11 at Thunder-Sky, Inc. More info: raymondthundersky.org.
This article appears in May 18-25, 2016.
