甜餅肯妮:巴黎變裝皇后系列 COOKIE K*NTY: Drag Landscapes - Paris
- 壓克力、油性筆、層板 oil pen on acrylic on cradled board
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60 x 45 x 3.9 cm
(23.62 x 17.72 x 1.54 in)
- $330,000
- 坦尼斯 Tennessee Loveless
I had briefly met Cookie Kunty at an event with Maison Cherie back out in May. It was a strange but beautiful place near Quartier Asiatique in Paris. I believe we only exchanged a few words but I asked for her to write her name on the back of a sticker so I could do some research when I returned to Chicago.
Months later I ended up staying in the 6th arrondissement near Jardin De Luxembourg, in where I would spend my days drafting her and finishing up my portrait of Mariska Stardust up in a 6th floor walk up attic apartment. Out of all the interviews that I conducted out there, everyone had a commonality in our conversations regarding the project.
It was:“Do you know Cookie Kunty?”, they’d say, “Well if you do or don’t, you MUST interview her. She’s a lovely queen and has a great story.”
… and truth be told, they were absolutely correct …
I met with Cookie the night before I was to leave Paris. It was raining heavily with bright neon flashes of lightning that spidered across the dark wet sky. My head was still reeling with the social geographic contexts of what it was like to be queer in Paris… Previous interviews with Sativa Blasée, Flammen Touche, Poulette Zhavakiki, and Mirage Maho Shojo opened up a whole new discussion on queer identity and how vastly different it is comparatively to American culture (let alone Chicagoan culture which is a WHOLE other story).
Still dizzy with all of this, listening to his story magnified the differences even more. Cookie in drag is a beautiful space alien often honing in on the extraterrestrial landscapes of drag. Out of drag, he carries himself in such a nonchalant worldly way, which makes sense.. seeing that Cookie has grown up all over the world. From Canada, Dominican Republic, Southern France, Caribbean, Paris and beyond.. Cookie has navigated through the world, while picking up different languages along the way fluently.
Cookie’s gateway into drag came from his sister, who was a performer out in Nice, France. “I come from a very accepting family. My sister is a transgender woman, and was a drag performer back out in Nice, France. She helped me with the idea of drag, and my parents were very accepting of this.” Cookie ended up moving to Paris to pursue his education in Fashion Design, and it would be here where not only his artistry in drag would flourish, but his drawings/paintings would come to fruition as well.
There was so much to Cookie,… so many avenues to expand on in regards to his journey in life as an artist… that 2 hours barely even scraped the surface of this complex and beautiful human being. We closed up the interview with a ‘to be continued’ formality, and exited his apartment. We both ran with his friend through the massive downpour of rain to the metro and ended up heading to “Les Souffleurs” out in Le Marais for the drag night “Extravaganza”.
It was my last night in Paris, and so many questions began to blossom in the garden of my head. While I was having the time of my life hanging out with the queens, in the back of my head I was slowly but surely getting upset that I had to leave a place I was starting to consider home. Teary eyed I returned to Chicago, and began the process of reliving their stories by painting them in my apartment out in Boystown. When I started compiling Cookie’s notes I pulled out my “Drag Landscapes” sketchbook and a sticker fell out of one of the pages. I picked it up and looked at the back of it and it said
“Romain ECK // Cookie Kunty // Research”
I laughed inside my head over the weird coincidence .. and began to compile his life story in his portrait.
我在5月份的一場Maison Cherie的活動離開時,偶然短暫的遇到了Cookie Kunty。這是一個奇怪但美麗的地方,在靠近巴黎的唐人街。我相信著彼此只是聊了幾句話,但我要求她在貼紙背面寫下她的名字,以便我回到芝加哥時可以做一些研究。
幾個月後,我最終住在盧森堡公園附近的 6 區,在那裡我每天都在為她畫草稿,並在 6 樓的閣樓公寓裡完成我的Mariska Stardust 肖像。
我在那裡進行的所有採訪中,每個人的對話中都有一個共同點。
“你認識 Cookie Kunty 嗎?”他們會說,“不管你認識還是不認識,你都必須採訪她。 她是一位可愛的女王,有一個很棒的故事。”
……說實話,他們是絕對正確的……
在我離開巴黎的前一天晚上,我遇到了Cookie。 雨下得很大,明亮的霓虹閃電劃過陰暗潮濕的天空。 我的腦子仍然在思考在巴黎成為同性戀的社會地理背景……之前對 Sativa Blasée、Flammen Touche、Poulette Zhavakiki 和 Mirage Maho Shojo 的採訪開啟了一場關於同性戀身份的全新討論,它與美國文化有很大的差異(更不用說芝加哥文化,這是一個完全不同的故事)。 透過她的故事雖然了解了這些差異,但還是讓我驚奇不已。
變裝Cookie是一個美麗的太空外星人,經常在變裝的外星景觀中磨練。 擺脫了變裝,他以一種冷淡的世俗方式經營著自己,這是有道理的,從加拿大、多米尼加共和國、法國南部、加勒比海、巴黎等地,Cookie 已經在世界各地航行並且成長,同時沿途中流利地學習了不同的語言。
Cookie的變裝之路來自他的姐姐,她是法國尼斯的一名表演者。“我來自一個非常包容的家庭。我姐姐是一名跨性別女性,曾在法國尼斯當過變裝演員。她幫助我提出了變裝的想法,我的父母對此非常接受。” Cookie 最終搬到巴黎繼續他的時裝設計教育,在這裡不僅他的變裝藝術會蓬勃發展,而且他的繪畫也會取得成果。Cookie有很多東西,有很多途徑可以擴展他作為藝術家的人生旅程……2小時的採訪相談甚歡,並且深入了解更多這位充滿特色與美麗的Cookie。
帶著“未完待續” ,走出了他的公寓。我們和他的朋友在傾盆大雨中跑到地鐵上,最後前往馬黑區的“Les Souffleurs”參加變裝之夜“Extravaganza”。
那是我在巴黎的最後一晚,許多問題開始在我的腦海中綻放。在我的生命中,我與皇后們度過一起玩樂的時光,在我的腦後,我慢慢地但肯定地感到不安,因為我不得不離開一個我開始考慮回家的地方。淚眼朦朧的我回到芝加哥,在我位於博伊斯敦的公寓裡開始重溫他們的故事。當我開始編輯 Cookie 的筆記時,我拿出了我的“Drag Landscapes”速寫本,一張貼紙從其中一頁上掉了下來。我撿起來看了看背面,上面寫著
“Romain ECK // Cookie Kunty // Research”
奇怪的巧合讓我在心裡笑了起來……然後開始繪畫他的肖像畫中的生活故事。
- Subject Matter: DRAG QUEEN
- Created: 2017
- Collections: 2021-10 台北藝博 Art Taipei