germaine de larch #rediscoveringtheordinary exhibition catalogue

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary a photographic exhibition

by Germaine de Larch

16 June - 21 July 2013

264 Fox Street (cnr Berea Rd) Arts on Main MABONENG PRECINCT Johannesburg

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Contact persons: Neil Nieuwoudt (curator) E: neil.nieuwoudt@gmail.com T: +27 72 350 4326 Moleboheng Sehume (creative director) E: molebo.sehume@gmail.com T: +27 76 244 3773

Germaine de Larch

artist statement

#rediscoveringtheordinary

“[T]he demand that everything must make a spectacular political statement […] has forced us to gloss over the nooks and crannies [….] By rediscovering the ordinary […] the daily lives of people should be the direct focus of political interest [….] If it is a new society we seek to bring about in South Africa then that newness will be based on a direct concern with the way people actually live.” – Njabulo Ndebele, 2001, South African Literature and Culture: Rediscovery of the Ordinary

My work is an artistic exploration of making the private public. For me there is no politics outside of the private, nothing extraordinary outside of the carnival of everyday, ordinary life. My artistic vision stems from the need to share the quirky, queer, beautiful and extraordinary that I see in the ordinary. I am in love with the individual, eccentric beauty and extraordinariness that I see in the ordinary around me in my daily life – the very human landscape of the city we live in, the selves that we choose to inhabit and the very organic and dynamic energy at the heart of the way that we engage with our city and our selves. It is this energy, this life-saving and life-celebrating renewal, recreation and renegotiation that is at the heart of my journey and who I am, what I see in this city and its people, and thus the images that I make.

My work is, first and foremost, a vehicle through which I perform the continuing creative construction of my identity; a way for me to document who I am, who I am becoming. I approach other spaces through fearlessly, and yet courageously, exploring inner space. My very confessional public excavation of the private through sharing my journey on Facebook and Twitter allows me to explore my self and my performance of my fluid identity and gender identity. By removing myself, as far as is possible, from the politicised community I live in, as well as the politicised categories I have lived within for most of my life, I am allowed the relative freedom of playing with and performing my own self, continuously and unendingly recreating and reconstructing my self, sharing that de- and reconstruction with my audience.

And the beauty is that my work has literally saved my life, has changed the way I see myself forever, has enabled me to fall in love with myself and the world around me. What started out as an autobiographical, therapeutic and healing process is now the framework for my work, allowing me to elicit the personal from the public, as my scrutiny of what it means to be human from the inside out allows me to see the human-ness in that which I see. I envision my portraiture as a mediated and collaborative experience of being stripped bare of its branded identity: humanity in its unmediated, ordinary and thus extraordinary form.

My images are a conscious choice to tell my own story and collaboratively tell the stories of my community, my city. My work is thus a collaboration with people and places on a journey of who they are, who are interested in playing with their identities, who want to explore the creative possibilities outside of the stereotypes. And they are not just objects outside of my self. They are a very human landscape rediscovering the extraordinary within the ordinary.

Germaine de Larch is a writer, visual artist and gender artivist living, working and playing in Johannesburg.

Germaine de Larch

maboneng #mabonengprecinct #joburg | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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domestic flight iii | With Sylvaine Strike | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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Backstage, “The Miser”, The Market Theatre | With Kate Liquorish | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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constant vigil #troyeville #joburg | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need i | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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of love & dragons #mabonengprecinct #joburg #signs | 2012 | Edition: 2 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Tripdick (Hillbrow Tower, Ponte, Sentech Tower) #joburg | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 3 x 25cm2 | R 5,500

Germaine de Larch

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From left to right:

learning to shave – an important rite of passage for growing boys | selfportrait | 2012 Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800 learning to apply make-up – an important rite of passage for growing girls | selfportrait | 2012 Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800 self-reflection | selfportrait | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800

Germaine de Larch

beautiful dreamer iii | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

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Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

celebrating The Freak i | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

a river runs through it #mabonengprecinct #joburg | 2012 | Edition: 3 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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carnivalesque | With Toni Morkel & Sylvaine Strike | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 35cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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afterbirth | selfportrait | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800

Germaine de Larch

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not Gay as in happy, Queer as in fuck you | selfportrait 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800

Germaine de Larch

we are more than our hair | 2013 | Edition: 2 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

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Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

smoke & mirrors #troyeville #joburg | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

domestic flight i | With Sylvaine Strike | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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Mary’s Boy Child | Selfportrait with Ang Lloyd | 2012 | Edition: 2 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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“The Last Show� | With Toni Morkel & Roberto Pombo | P.O.P. Art | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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captivated | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

celebrating The Freak iii | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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genderfuckery on a sunday afternoon i | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

genderfuckery on a sunday afternoon ii | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

city dreaming #troyeville #joburg | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

cloudy cityscape #troyeville #joburg | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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rePlaying childhood | selfportrait | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

rock star | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

beautiful dreamer ii | 2012 | Edition: 2 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

celebrating The Freak i | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

domestic flight ii | With Sylvaine Strike | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

private world #troyeville #joburg | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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the former photographer’s model | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

birdhouse | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Backstage, “The Miser�, The Market Theatre | With Motlatji Ditodi | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

beautiful dreamer i | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

white picket fences #joburg #troyeville | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

Shades of Gay V.0.1. | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

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Germaine de Larch

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Shades of Gay V.0.3. | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

Shades of Gay V.0.4. | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

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Germaine de Larch

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Shades of Gay V.0.2. | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

madelein | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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Ladydude | selfportrait | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

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domestic flight iv | With Sylvaine Strike | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

the body modifier | selfportrait | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need ii | 2012 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Jack out of the box | With Sylvaine Strike | 2012 Edition: 1 of 10 | 15x10,5cm | R 1,800

Germaine de Larch

domesticity i | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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domesticity ii | selfportrait with Ang Lloyd | 2013 | Edition: 2 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

Germaine de Larch

you’re Here #Ang | selfportrait | 2013 | Edition: 1 of 10 | 25cm2 | R 2,600

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

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installation – Studio23

Installing in Studio23 Photo: Germaine de Larch

Curator, Neil Nieuwoudt and artist, Germaine de Larch installing in Studio23 Photo: Laetitia Lups

Germaine de Larch installing in Studio23 Photo: Laetitia Lups

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch

Installation, Studio23 Photos: Germaine de Larch

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

opening – 16 June 2013, Studio23

Opening, Studio23 Photos: Laetitia Lups

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

Photo: Ang Lloyd

Opening, Studio23

Photo: Laetitia Lups

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

interview with Germaine de Larch – Daily Maverick | 26 March 2013 Goal: A world without gender. Mission: possible.

In a world where gender norms are too often rigidly controlled by tradition, religiosity and politicking – iconoclasts are disrupting the norm. Abroad these take the form of parents who’re choosing to bring children up gender-free, while locally an emerging artist and political author questions the legitimacy of limiting local gender constructions. By MANDY DE WAAL. [...] In Johannesburg, Germaine de Larch is a writer, artist and identity activist who is documenting her disruption of society’s confining gender dictates. De Larch documents her own experiences through writing and photography, and uses portraiture to communicate imagery that interrupts gender norms.

Her skin is also a biography of sorts. “Some people just don’t get the tattoo on the back of my neck,” she says. Ink on skin, words from T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock flow where de Larch’s hairline ends: And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?

And how should I presume?

Like Eliot’s Prufrock, De Larch has survived a fixed ‘formulated phrase.’ In her case this was gender labelling that diminished De Larch and, in her perception, rendered her invisible. “My teen years and 20s were spent identifying according to how others saw me, and the ‘dis-ease’ I felt with that identity was at the root of a depression that almost claimed my life,” says De Larch.

Tumbling off the edge into the darkness was chilling for a young De Larch. She abandoned an MA in Philosophy at Wits, but the debilitating depression that saw her hospitalised proved to be a catalyst for the reincarnation of her identity. “My decision to leap off the cliff and begin again reconstructing not only my life but myself - saw the end of my clinical depression and the beginning of a life that far exceeds what I ever wished for myself,” she says, and adds: “The sheer terror that accompanies reconstructing one’s life and identity could only be mitigated by the realisation I am only fully alive when playing with my identity, specifically my gender identity.”

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

For De Larch, rebirth has meant casting off ill-fitting familiars - the gender and identity constructions that family and society clumsily cobbled together for her. “My early years were very much about feeling invisible - I had massive social phobia and could only really begin voicing myself in my late 20’s,” she says.

Growing up, De Larch never felt aligned with her gender. When she realised that she was a ‘woman’ – and she uses the quotation marks consciously – who was attracted to other females, she emulated her upbringing by crafting a catch-all to try make sense of her identity. “I made the mistake that so many people make and believed that if I was not heterosexual, I must be homosexual, and if I was a homosexual woman, then I must be butch.” But the ‘butch lesbian’ label didn’t fit. “This never felt authentic and was as claustrophobic as the doilies and ponytails of my childhood.”

At 35, De Larch now chooses to define herself as ‘queer’ because this is the least limiting selfdescriptor she’s yet found. “For me ‘queer’ works as a description of my fluid self, as it allows me the freedom to explore myself, my identity and my world within loose boundaries,” she says.

“Queer makes the necessary, and often overlooked, distinction between sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Within these three areas there is a multitude of descriptors,” De Larch says, explaining that when it comes to gender identity, she does not fix herself in one gender but prefers the freedom of moving back and forth between the boundaries of male and female. She identifies herself as being androgynous, but mostly enjoys expressing her gender as male.

“Gender-queer means that I am attracted to people who embody both masculine and feminine qualities but who do not situate themselves within one gender. This is distinct from bisexuality in that bisexuals are attracted to specific genders, to people who are either male- or female-bodied; whereas I am attracted to those who are gender-free,” she says. “In terms of my gender expression (the outward expression of my gender), I feel most comfortable expressing myself as male,” says the identity activist who shaves her head, enjoys being muscular and wears male clothing.

De Larch is happy being female-bodied and a discussion about pronouns reveals that the writer and artist chooses to be referred to as ‘she’, although she’s uncomfortable with the claustrophobic containment of binary labelling. “I have no desire to be male; but have as little desire to be female. Both are equally stereotyped. While I present myself mainly as male, I have a lot of fun with stereotypes by unleashing my inner gay man when I wear lilac shirts, and adding the feminine touch of polished nails to my masculine attire,” she says.

Predictably, De Larch is confronted daily by a society that wants to construct her gender identity for her. “Petrol attendants and shop assistants call me ‘sir’ and when out with a friend or my partner at restaurants, I’m the one to whom they give the bill. I still want to wear a hidden camera so that I can catch these gendering interactions on camera. They’re very interesting and

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

completely indicative of how society is very much constructed along gender lines,” she says.

Instead of taking offence, as some people might, De Larch engages playfully: “I participate in the gendering game, causing people to question their own gender and gendering constructions. As part of my male gender expression, I have fun with the convention of ‘the gentleman’ and hold doors open for other people.” In the split second that people pass through the door they construct De Larch as male, but turn around in confusion. “They pass through and register my breasts,” she says, adding: “You can actually see brains rebooting as they try to recover from their inability to categorise me.”

Today De Larch embraces her identity by helping others to surrender to theirs through her photographic portraiture work that disrupts conventional notions of gender identity. “My work is a collaboration with people who are on a journey in terms of who they are; who are interested in playing with their identities; people who want to explore the possibilities outside of the stereotypes of society and politics that activism participates in. It is an artistic exploration of making the private public,” says De Larch.

“For me there is no politics outside of the private, nothing extraordinary outside of the carnival of everyday, ordinary life. My artistic vision stems from the need to share the quirky, queer, beautiful and extraordinary that I see in the ordinary every day. I challenge the social construction of identity by performing the processes of identity formation, calling on my audience to see themselves and others as capable of recreating their identity, empowering them to reassert personal agency,” she adds.

Clean, striking and mostly black-and-white, De Larch’s work is arresting. In one photograph she encircles her partner in a loving embrace - on her arm, an intricate tattoo of a bird in flight, underscored by the words: “hope is a feathered thing”. This is an adaptation from the work of Emily Dickinson, who wrote: “Hope” is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops - at all – In stark contrast to De Larch’s playful fluidity, local gender norms are rigidly controlled by tradition, religiosity and politicking that gives voice to constitutional parity; but which fails to realise true gender diversity or equality. Underscored by a de facto patriarchy, South African attitudes to gender are strictly binary and vulgarly imprisoning. A vagina and breasts means ‘girl’, while a penis means ‘man’ - with the attendant controls of passivity vs. strength that attend this crude dichotomy.

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary

People like De Larch [...] can help society to confront gender stereotypes and present the fragile hope that things can be different. They show that the deeply ingrained expectations societies have of people don’t always fit, aren’t always useful, and are in many ways a dysfunction that too harshly defines some aspects of identity, while mistakenly confusing others.

The fragile hope is that as a society we might move closer to forgoing the politics of controlling gender identity to empowering people with the freedom to make their own choices. DM

Germaine de Larch

#rediscoveringtheordinary #rediscoveringtheordinary

Germaine de Larch www.germainedelarchimages.co.za www.germainedelarch.tumblr.com

264 Fox Street (cnr Berea Rd) Arts on Main MABONENG PRECINCT Johannesburg

Contact persons: Neil Nieuwoudt (curator) E: neil.nieuwoudt@gmail.com T: +27 72 350 4326 Moleboheng Sehume (creative director) E: molebo.sehume@gmail.com T: +27 76 244 3773