Transformer : Aspects of Travesty

13 Dec 2013-28 Feb 2014

Overview

Transformer will include works from Luciano CASTELLI, Jürgen KLAUKE, Urs LÜTHI, Pierre MOLINIER, Tony MORGAN, Luigi ONTANI, Walter PFEIFFER, Andrew SHERWOOD, Katharina SIEVERDING, Werner Alex Meyer (alias Alex SILBER), THE COCKETTES and Andy WARHOL. Transformer looks back at the '70s contemporary society and art practice, considering the aspects of transvestism and sexual self-reflection in art. The exhibition takes its title from the seminal 1972 album by recently deceased ex-Velvet Underground star Lou Reed, finding its parallel in the worlds of fashion and glam-rock. Transformer examines the politics and aesthetics of transgressing identity and at the disruptive sexualisation of masculinity by incorporating characters usually labelled as ‘feminine’. The exhibition opened at the Kunstmuseum Lucerne, Switzerland, and was an extraordinary cultural event: the opening was recorded by Swiss TV and it toured later to Germany and Austria. It was the first occasion that sought to theorise transvestism and which explored non-normative sexualities and the production of identity.