At the beginning of the project, i wanted to explore the idea of drag culture through my admiration for the tv show, ‘Rupaul’s drag race.’ The show gave me an interesting insight into the world of drag and i was fascinated by the contestants’ backstory in which they shared on the show. I wanted to explore this idea of drag being something more than just a man dressed as a woman - an art form - a performance. I wanted to show people who perhaps haven’t given the show time to understand the true effort and skill it takes to become and be labeled as a drag queen.
In my initial development, I looked at the history of drag, reading books and exploring cultures, investigating the representation of drag in ancient era and how it was accepted/not accepted. It was really interesting to gain insight into people’s lives and find out more about what cross-dressing means to them. I started to find that the amount of research was quite overwhelming and I became invested in reading books on the history which wasn’t exactly helping me to establish and refine a question for my dissertation.
I started to narrow my research down a bit and look at key themes and theories which would work with my project. I thought it would be an interesting concept to really analyze the tv show and explore the ways in which drag is represented - through this I started to create some practical responses in which show this ‘ideal drag queen’. I wanted to really accentuate and exaggerate the features, emphasising the drag aesthetic. I thought it would be interesting to play around with symbolism and semiotics.
Overall i think this project was very successful. I decided to really come out of my comfort zone and try something new with regards to the more expressive, energetic style posters. I think this creates great synthesis with the research undertaken. One of the reasons why it was so successful was probably because I looked at all possible practical directions in my approach. I wanted to explore all areas to select the most appropriate style of work. My use of photocopying and scanning with combinations of analogue and digital creates a real sense of struggle and drama - the textures present show the struggle for acceptance.
Getting some first hand research by interviewing current drag queens was a very important aspect of my project as it allowed me to delve deeper inside this idea of drag representation and listen to in depth stories about their own personal experiences/influence, which was a pivotal part of my outcomes. Using some of my own photos which was I used in my posters was also a successful element.
I found the initial stages of the project particularly difficult in regards to creating a practical response. I didn’t want to create work which was predictable and generic, I also didn't want to create work which was tacky and ketch (which is probably present in my initial prints). I overcame this problem through crits and narrowing down my research further to generate a research question, an area to respond to.
My Punk inspired posters depict that real sense for struggle for acceptance. The texture created through experimentations depicts the struggle and hardships drag queens have been through. There is a clear representation of the subcultural element and this idea of wanting to break free and become mainstream. There is something quite dark and haunting about them but showcases the artistic element through paint brushes and strokes. If I had longer on this project i would maybe make some more posters and look to increase the scale even further.
