We are so excited to invite you into our new art work “In My Own Skin” that combines handmade “queer skins” –handmade garments– created as part of our collaboration with textile artist Loise Braganza that sit somewhere between costume and clothing. Beautiful photography by Tagger Yancey IV of amateur models who were asked to reveal a part of themselves by choosing one of the garments that best represented these attributes and be photographed in their own homes using natural light. In our virtual installation in VRChat, these portraits will be housed in archetypal edifices. The procedural logic of the installation, recapitulates the act of veiling and revealing. I can honestly say you have never seen photography this way. These portraits are certainly in conversation with drag but operate differently–not aping binaries, but finding a new materail language of wonder and beauty and difference. Opening in VRChat April 21st. For CDP: DOX, we will be performing live conversations with featured guests. Details on how you can participate SOON.

First up, the only one in Zoom (to celebrate trans visibility and for all you without headsets!) will be what will surely be a mind-expanding and delightful conversation with Alex: Gender Troubles in XR (and IRL): a Trans Perspective Gender, as Judith Butler notes, is performative. Virtual Reality offers the potential of subverting rigid binaries of gender and the association of gender with biology, a legacy of Victorian eugenic “science.” In this walk and talk, Alex talks about her experience as a trans model, actress and activist and the potential to alter our relationship to conventional notions of “maleness” and “female,” using selected photographs in the exhibition “In My Own Skin” as touch points. Alex will perform some of her powerful poetry live during the event.

The rest of the conversations will be in VRChat and space will be limited! Details soon!

Beom Jun Kim of wa.k studio joins me to discuss Space Matters: the Overlooked Importance of Architecture in XR. The importance of architecture and the relationship of physical space and in relation to the role of movement through space in VR has been under-recognized. Recent developments in neuro-aesthetics and embodied cognition have confirmed what architects have always known, that that the construction of space can radically shape human experience.

Actor Michael DeBartolo (Sebastian in Queerskins!) joins me to discuss Touch in the Time of Covid: Rethinking Intimacy in XR. The spatial and interactive affordances of Virtual Reality offer the opportunity to construct unexpected forms of intimacy, creating a kind of magic circle where, at least for a time, the conventional divisions that separate “us” and “other” don’t easily or simply apply. Actor Michael DeBartolo, who modeled for the exhibition, discusses his personal journey as a proud out gay man and activist through his work in VR. He will also be performing live monologues from Sebastian’s Diary. You do not want to miss this!

Textile artist and collaborator Loise Braganza will join me for “The Texture of Identity: Fashion and the Body in VR” Although digital spaces are being rapidly colonized by large corporations, often perpetuating existing political, social and economic inequalities, Mumbai based textile artist Loise Braganza, who created the garments for “In My Own Skin,” will explore how these spaces might become laboratories for rethinking our relationship to clothing, the body, identity, representation, sustainability, labor, and pleasure.