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Gallery Exhibitions  Narratives / Blogs |
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Katrina Fullman and “Tony” Denise Conca | Fort Wayne, Indiana The notion of finding use for what we usually throw away can be compared to the notion of appreciating those who deviate from society’s gender norms. In Katrina Fullman’s and “Tony” Denise Conca’s Refuse and Refashion, the idea of “feeding off others’ waste” is a queer strategy that gives the viewer a lead into other gender related issues. In the beginning of the video by these Fort Wayne, Indiana-based collaborative artists, we hear the narrator describe how as a young girl she wanted to be a garbage collector. However, because she is classified as female, her dream to become a trash man was shot down. The narrator finds her calling by salvaging capitalist waste to make it useful once again in everyday life and through that process, successfully supports a business. The ideo ends with a fashion show of used clothes reimagined in a creative and gender ambiguous way. The parallel between the breaching of capitalist commercial normalcy and the crossing of binary gender boundaries creates a simple yet progressive idea that may be called deviant by many who prefer to conserve traditional views of both systems. Others may call this parallel a revolution of the obsolete. Fullman and Conca show gender as a performance through the entertaining fashion show which, ironically, casts gender as irrelevant. The idea of gender specific garments has no useful place on this runway. Masks, costume and the rejection of a traditionally idealized male or female identified model serves as a message of gender irrelevance. The “queer” notion of feeding off capitalist waste is embedded in gender ambiguous performance, leaving the viewer with a vision of breaking through the traditional boundaries of both gender and commerce with one transgressive act. - by Amanda Moss  Katrina Fullman and “Tony” Denise Conca Refuse & Refashion, 2004 video |