Transgender couple presents photographs of their opposite transitions.
Artist Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst are transitioning in opposite directions and have captured their individual transformations in the “Relationship” series. This collection of photographs will be a part of the Biennial 2014 exhibit taking place at The Whitney Museum of American Art, from March 7th– May 25th. The photo series is an intimate diary of the couple’s love affair and gender identity transitions.
Drucker, 31, was born male in Syracuse, New York, and is a graduate of Hampshire College. Ernst, 31, was born female in Pomona, California, and graduated from the School of Visual Arts. She had appeared on a TV reality show “Artstar,” and he had been working for MTV when the couple met in 2005. They now live in Los Angeles. Drucker is transitioning from male to female and Ernst from female to male. The photos span five years of their relationship from 2008 to 2013. The photographs include tender embraces, their bandaged bodies from hormone injections, and also shots of Drucker’s growing breasts.
“We stepped back and we had a huge body of work. It felt like a natural choice. We didn’t think about being in the closet. It’s faithful to our lives and has a lot of layers, not just to do with gender,” Ernst told ABC News.
The installation is part of three collaborative projects by Drucker, who is a photographer, filmmaker and performance artist, and Ernst, a director and filmmaker. They have also staged several events at the Whitney, including a screening of their film, “She Gone Rogue,” a series of tarot card readings with the drag queen Flawless Sabrina, which sold out.
“We have been very fortunate to have had supportive family,” said Drucker. “Much of that has to do with our socioeconomic background — also being white. Lots of trans- people are in very dangerous, precarious situations because our culture does not create space for people who exist outside the binary. These insidious elements of gender policing trickle down and affect all of us.”
Ernst added, “the biggest struggle for us outside being trans is more about being emerging artists and struggling and trying to figure out how to pay our bills and make a living. Practising our art has been really hard. Drucker and Ernst have recently been hired to act as advisers on Amazon’s new original series, “Transparent.”
Info: http://whitney.org/
