娣-蕾絲:芝加哥變裝皇后系列 T-REX: Drag Landscapes - Chicago
- 壓克力、油性筆、層板 oil pen on acrylic on cradled board
-
60 x 45 x 3.9 cm
(23.62 x 17.72 x 1.54 in)
- $330,000
- 坦尼斯 Tennessee Loveless
Trannika was raised in Fort Pierce, a small town on the mid southeastern side of Florida. While his father was mostly out of the picture in his life (and passed away when Trannika was 16), he was heavily supported by his mother and grandfather. “My mother’s side of the family, who are from Chattanooga, Tennessee, were heavily involved in the arts. My grandfather was an art dealer and dealt with a lot of great artists, and I even remember him selling Rembrandt’s sketch book to Johnny Cash at one point. He was a huge influence for me as a kid when it came to the arts.”
Trannika continues, “He pushed me to do a lot of things. When I was little, everyday when I would come home after school, I would illustrate and write in these art books… and he had this file folder of all of my work, and would push me to create everyday. He was always helping me, and when I decided I wanted to do theatre… he put me in every theatre camp for eleven years. My mom has also been very supportive, even when I started doing drag. She’s been nothing but encouraging and has even come to my shows. She’s so on
board with it.”
Even though Trannika had support from his mother and family, life outside of them in Fort Pierce proved to be somewhat difficult.
“I didn’t have friends and I got bullied a lot, Trannika says, “I was very effeminate and had a girls voice until I hit puberty. I was a chubby kid and I looked like a girl because I l had long hair and looked like I had boobs…. and I was just a very clunky kid. As I grew up that started to change, especially when I was 16/17, because thats when a lot of things happened. We lost our home, car, everything to a hurricane that year. It was also the year my father died. I had a nervous breakdown when he passed away. I was such a
sensitive kid growing up and I cried a lot, but after that I hardened… I don’t really cry anymore.”
In regards to Trannika’s sexuality, he mainly stayed in the closet until he was 18 due to the homophobic environment of Fort Pierce back then. He recalls that he was called ‘faggot’ and ‘gay’ in such harsh ways, that coming out would have proved to be far more difficult than staying in the closet. “The closet was a safety net, because if you get outed which is this horrible blinding thing, people will be worse to you”.
When it came to coming out to his family , Trannika says “It was the day before Valentines Day, and my mother asked me what I was going to be doing. I mentioned ‘I’m going to hang out with my boyfriend’. There was a pause, and then she said ‘You know, even if you weren’t joking right now, I’d be okay with this’. I told her I wasn’t joking and she responded ‘Ok. Cool! Tell me all about him! What's his name?’… and just like that it was so easy. My mom is very supportive and I’m lucky I have that.”
Trannika eventually left Fort Pierce for a new life at college. It was at this point where he realized that he was no longer going to be pursuingtheatre, and instead decided to get his education in business at the University of South Florida. It was here that Trannika later combined his education with what his grandfather taught him as a child, and merged the arts and business together. He soon opened up his vintage clothing business called Sister Man Vintage (“Vintage Party Gear For Ladies of all Genders”), which became highly successful.
Trannika eventually moved to Chicago after leaving USF, and had initially planned to move to New York City afterwards. “I visited Chicago when I was 8 years old, and it's just been in my head ever since that I wanted to move there. I figured I’d use it as a stepping stone, but after 2 years I realized that Chicago was my home. I had really kind of figured out who I was, and I didn’t want to leave.”
He eventually ended up starting to get interested in drag, especially when visiting Boystown. Being incredibly social, Trannika made friends with a lot of the patrons and queens there. “I wanted to see drag so I went to Berlin to check out the shows, and I idolized the hosts. I was still doing my vintage business so I’d show the queens some of the outfits I had and talk with them.”
It was here where Trannika decided to start performing. “Mind you I was a horrible performer,” Trannika says, “I was absolutely awful, BUT I brought a lot of people,and that got me on the cast. Continually I’d ask here and there if I could host every now and then which worked out for me. Eventually one of the hostesses had to take some time off, and I got the opportunity to host more.”It would be at Berlin, where Trannika would take over “Drag Matinee” and begin her career as hostess of the show. With her incredible wit and ability to command the crowd, Berlin let her start her other event “Crash Landing”, a night where she was able to give new performers all over the city to have a place to perform. From here, Trannika rose to the top of Chicago’s drag circuit, and its only been upwards ever since.
When it comes to his work, Trannika states “Drag was the missing link in my life. I had tried painting, theatre, and the vintage business. Drag was the full circle for me, and the reason why I do the drag I do is because its filling all the voids in my life and I can combine it all.” Trannika continues, “I’m a better foreman than a worker bee when it comes to drag. My brain sees charts and graphs and nothingmore. When you come to one of my shows its completely rounded. You have to look at creating a show with every point of view and I do that. I put my all into it.”
While being a heavily booked queen, emcee, and running multiple shows is certainly an impressive thing in a heavily drag-centric city, Trannika does mention the difficulties that come with the responsibility. “I know I was a bit headstrong in the beginning, but I felt like I was harsh because I had to prove something when I was new in this role. This city is highly competitive, so I felt like I had to come in swinging. I’ve certainly softened up over the years. This business is a tough business so the biggest challenge is finding your medium.”
Trannika在佛羅里達州東南中部的一個小鎮皮爾斯堡(Fort Pierce)長大。雖然他的父親一生中幾乎沒有照片(並在Trannika十六歲時去世),但他得到了母親和祖父的支持。
“我母親的家人來自田納西州查塔努加,他們非常投入參與藝術創作。我的祖父是一位藝術品交易商,曾與許多偉大的藝術家打交道,我還記得他曾一次將倫勃朗的素描本賣給約翰尼·卡什(Johnny Cash)。他在我小時候,啟蒙我對於藝術的深刻的影響。”
Trannika繼續說道:“他引導我做很多事情。當我很小的時候,每天放學回家,我都會在眾多的美術書籍中進行插圖和寫作,而他擁有了我所有作品的作品集,並會督促我每天持續創作。當我決定要去劇院的時候,他促成了我,並讓我參與劇場活動長達十一年。我的媽媽也始終支持著我,即使我在一開始進行受到阻礙,她仍鼓勵著我,甚至來看了我的表演。她對此很滿意。”
儘管Trannika得到了母親和家人的支持,但在皮爾斯堡的外面生活卻有些困難。
“我沒有朋友,經常受到欺負,Trannika說:“我當時看起來很娘娘腔,而且有女孩的聲音,直到我進入青春期。我是一個胖嘟嘟的孩子,我看起來像個女孩,因為我是長頭髮,讓我看起來像有女性胸部。在很多人眼中我只是個笨拙的孩子。隨著我長大,這種情況開始發生變化,尤其是在我16/17歲時,那是一段很多事情發生的時間。那年,我們因為颶風失去了房屋,汽車。那也是我父親去世的一年。他去世時,我感到神經衰弱。我從小就是一個很敏感的孩子,但是在發生那些事情之後我變得堅強……我不再哭了。”
關於Trannika的性向,由於當時皮爾斯堡(Fort Pierce)是一個討厭同性戀環境,他封閉自己待在衣櫥裡直到18歲。他回憶說,他被這樣刻板地稱為“男同性戀”和“同性戀”。事實證明,站出來承認比住在衣櫥裡困難得多。衣櫥是一個讓人安心的保護網,擔心如果以這個身分走出去,衣櫥外許多狗屁倒灶的事情,會讓外在人們對你更加輕視。
當談到他的家人時,Trannika說:“那是情人節的前一天,母親問我要幹嘛。我提到“我要和男朋友一起出去玩”。頓了一下,然後她說:“你知道,即使你現在不是在開玩笑,對此我也沒關係。”我告訴她我不是在開玩笑,她回答‘好。酷!告訴我關於他的一切!他叫什麼名字?’…就像那樣簡單。我媽媽非常支持我,我很幸運。
Trannika最終離開了皮爾斯堡(Fort Pierce),開始了大學的新生活。他意識到自己不再打算去劇院,而是決定在南佛羅里達大學(University of South Florida)進修商業。正是在這裡,Trannika後來他在學習過程中,將祖父小時候教給他的藝術和商業融合在一起。不久後,他開設了一家名為Sister Man Vintage的古董服裝公司(“面向各年齡段女士的復古聚會裝備”),非常的成功。
Trannika離開USF後最終搬到了芝加哥,最初計劃是之後搬到紐約。“我八歲的時候就去了芝加哥,從那以後我想搬到紐約的計畫就一直在我腦海中。我以為它是墊腳石,但兩年後我意識到芝加哥才是我的家。我真的弄清楚了我是誰,我不想離開。”
最終,他開始對變裝產生興趣,尤其是在訪問Boystown時。Trannika社交手腕極好,與那裡的許多顧客和皇后交了朋友。“我想看變裝,所以我去柏林看了演出,我把主持人當作偶像。那時因為我仍在從事古董業務,因此我會向變裝皇后們展示我所擁有的一些古董裝備並與他們交談。”
Trannika決定在這裡開始表演。“請記住,我是一個可怕的表演者,”Trannika說,“我不是一位很傑出的表演者,但是我帶來了很多觀眾,這使我脫穎而出並加入演員陣容。我試著詢問是否能讓我主持一次,對我來說很有效。最終,其中一位女主持人不抽出時間,而我有機會主持更多的活動。”
Trannika將接管在柏林的“ Drag Matinee”,並開始擔任演出的女主持人。在柏林憑藉她非凡的才智和指揮人群的能力,讓她開始了另一場比賽“墜落著陸”(Crash Landing),那天晚上,她讓這整座城市提供新進演員一個表演場所。從此,Trannika成為芝加哥變裝賽的最高指標,聲勢節節上升。
當談到他的工作時,Trannika說:“我曾嘗試過繪畫,戲劇和復古生意,唯獨缺少嘗試過變裝這個環節。而我做變裝是因為它填補了生活中的所有空白,我可以將所有這些結合起來,讓我的生命更加完整。” Trannika繼續說道:“當討論到變裝議題,比起同儕我會是一位好的領導者。我能看到議題的整體面。當您看到我的表演時,從各角度來看,會發現這是一個全方位的秀,因為我用盡全力來製作。
身為一位知名變裝皇后,主持並參與多次演出,在一個以變裝為中心的城市中,無疑是一件令人印象深刻的事情,但Trannika確實提到了責任所帶來的困難。 “我知道一開始我會有點頑強,覺得自己很苛刻,因為剛擔任這個職位時,我必須證明一些東西。這個城市競爭激烈,所以我覺得必須加入行列一同競爭。這些年來,我當然已經軟化了。這項業務是一項艱鉅的挑戰,而最大的挑戰是找到自身的定位。”
- Created: 2017
- Collections: 2021-10 台北藝博 Art Taipei