Queer and Transparent Gazing
Friday 13 September 2019
9.45am–1.00pm
The Capitol, RMIT University
113 Swanston Street, Melbourne
A conversation about the queer lens with trans artist and Transparent producer Zackary Drucker (USA), genderqueer drag performer Asis D’Orange (ISR) and film critic Cerise Howard.
Masterclass: Queer and Transparent Gazing is co-presented by RMIT Capitol Theatre with the Festival of Jewish Art and Music (FOJAM) and supported by RMIT School of Art CAST and School of Media & Communication.
In this Masterclass Zackary Drucker will deliver a keynote lecture about how she approaches queer creative practice and how she has contributed to queer representation through the TV series Transparent, for which she was a contributing producer, her work on the Gender Spectrum Collection — a genderqueer stock photography collection she created for Broadly — and her own artworks. What does it mean to Zackary to be a queer, trans artist, and what are the limits, provocations, critiques and creative goals of her work?
Zackary will then be joined by Aviv Shalem (Asis D’Orange) and film critic Cerise Howard on a panel to discuss queer art practices, how you 'queer' the gaze and what 'queering' the body through performance means to each of them. How does their art politicise the gaze and make 'queer' more visible?
The Masterclass will also include selected screenings of Drucker’s selected short films and video works, and a spoken word and video performance by Asis D’Orange.
Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, cultural producer, and trans woman who breaks down the way we think about gender, sexuality, and seeing. She has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMA PS1, Hammer Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA San Diego, and SF MoMA, among others. Drucker is an Emmy-nominated Producer for the docuseries This Is Me, as well as a Producer on Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Transparent.
Aviv Shalem, aka Asis D'Orange, is a gender-blending fashionista drag performer from Tel Aviv. As a genderqueer Arab-Jew raised in a religious household, Asis found themselves at several intersections of society. In drag Asis found a place to delve into fashion and art from a distinctly political, anarchist and genderqueer perspective. Their star has been on the rise since 2017 when they took home the crown in the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival’s first drag competition.
Cerise Howard is the Artistic Director of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia, a member of the International Jury Board of the East-West: Golden Arch awards, a co-curator of the Melbourne Cinémathèque and a co-founder of tilde: Melbourne's Trans & Gender Diverse Film Festival. A freelance writer and peregrine film critic, she can regularly be heard on Plato’s Cave on Melbourne radio station 3RRR.
9.45
Doors Open
10.15
Keynote Lecture by Zackary Drucker
11.35
Asis D'Orange Performance
11.55
Panel Conversation and Q&A
1.00
Event concludes
Tickets: $18 full / $14 concession
This event is FREE for RMIT students and staff when booking with an RMIT email address, and FREE for FOJAM ticket holders.**
The Capitol, RMIT University
Co-Presented with the Festival of Jewish Art and Music(FOJAM).
Questions? Email thecapitol@rmit.edu.au
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** FOJAM ticket holders will be emailed by the Festival with an access code.