Tablet, June 2003
Cambodian Drag Queens And Other Beauties
By Tonnvane Wiswell
While you’re strolling (or staggering) around Capitol Hill over Pride weekend, you’ll eventually find yourself on the lower end of Pike/ Pine, the cultural heart of Seattle’s gay ghetto. Here among the tasty (yet affordable) restaurants, you’ll find many small shops featuring work but local artists and craftspeople, such as Hello Gorgeous, Dumb Clothing and Lipstick Traces.
A newish addition to this group is Bluebottle Art Gallery. Bluebottle has not only traditional gallery space (up a spiral staircase) but also lots of group space featuring small works and functional items (clocks, lamps, cool matchboxes) by local artists. I’m sure you would be going there anyway, right? But for Pride weekend, you must go so you can see “Gods and Aspara of the New Millennium” an exhibit of photos taken in Cambodia by Jim Hall.
“Gods and Aspara” is a Technicolor view of society in a state of rapid transition. Sexual and racial identity seems to be in flux for some, while for others (the bride in “Arranged marriage” who looks like she’s downed several Valiums) the old traditions hold too strongly. Two photos of mannequins indicate an identification with cultures both foreign (the blond solider of “ General Kurtz”) and fantastic (the anime-eyed crackled faced “Model Bride”).
Standing out like sunflowers in a field of geraniums was the photo “Ladyboys # 3”, which depicts Cambodian men at a drag party in Phnom Penh.. (“Ladyboys #2 could be found in the stock of matted prints on the display table.) According to the caption, this was one of the first such parties to happen in Cambodia. The three ladyboys looked like junior high school girls, uncertain of themselves and their newfound beauty. Unlike the bride in the earlier photo, the subjects of this photo seemed to have hope that their future would be brighter than their past.
Although modest in size “Gods and Aspara” is a thoughtful show that illuminates the variety of interpretations beauty can take in one jumbled corner of the world. While you’re feeling flush with the glories of being gay in Seattle, run upstairs for a few minutes and be glad that you, too, live in a place where homogeneity is the exception, and not the rule.
tabletmagazine.com
Cambodian Drag Queens And Other Beauties
By Tonnvane Wiswell
While you’re strolling (or staggering) around Capitol Hill over Pride weekend, you’ll eventually find yourself on the lower end of Pike/ Pine, the cultural heart of Seattle’s gay ghetto. Here among the tasty (yet affordable) restaurants, you’ll find many small shops featuring work but local artists and craftspeople, such as Hello Gorgeous, Dumb Clothing and Lipstick Traces.
A newish addition to this group is Bluebottle Art Gallery. Bluebottle has not only traditional gallery space (up a spiral staircase) but also lots of group space featuring small works and functional items (clocks, lamps, cool matchboxes) by local artists. I’m sure you would be going there anyway, right? But for Pride weekend, you must go so you can see “Gods and Aspara of the New Millennium” an exhibit of photos taken in Cambodia by Jim Hall.
“Gods and Aspara” is a Technicolor view of society in a state of rapid transition. Sexual and racial identity seems to be in flux for some, while for others (the bride in “Arranged marriage” who looks like she’s downed several Valiums) the old traditions hold too strongly. Two photos of mannequins indicate an identification with cultures both foreign (the blond solider of “ General Kurtz”) and fantastic (the anime-eyed crackled faced “Model Bride”).
Standing out like sunflowers in a field of geraniums was the photo “Ladyboys # 3”, which depicts Cambodian men at a drag party in Phnom Penh.. (“Ladyboys #2 could be found in the stock of matted prints on the display table.) According to the caption, this was one of the first such parties to happen in Cambodia. The three ladyboys looked like junior high school girls, uncertain of themselves and their newfound beauty. Unlike the bride in the earlier photo, the subjects of this photo seemed to have hope that their future would be brighter than their past.
Although modest in size “Gods and Aspara” is a thoughtful show that illuminates the variety of interpretations beauty can take in one jumbled corner of the world. While you’re feeling flush with the glories of being gay in Seattle, run upstairs for a few minutes and be glad that you, too, live in a place where homogeneity is the exception, and not the rule.
tabletmagazine.com
