Exhibition
Hunter Reynolds. From Drag to Dervish
21 Nov 2019 – 21 Dec 2019
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- Closed
Address
- 535 West 22nd Street
- New York
New York - 10011
- United States
P.P.O.W. is pleased to present From Drag to Dervish, an exhibition chronicling the life of Hunter Reynolds’ alter-ego Patina du Prey through historic installations, sculptural gowns, photographs, and performance documentation.
About
An activist, muse, and healer, du Prey performed throughout the United States, Western Europe and Canada during the AIDS crisis. Whether worn on the artist’s body or presented on a male-form mannequin, du Prey’s series of rotating, suspended or sunken dress-sculptures embody a dual-gendered spirit.
Reynolds’ public exploration of gender and persona was influenced by the East Village drag scene of the mid-1980s and nights spent at the Pyramid Club. This project formally debuted with Drag at Simon Watson Gallery in 1990. As documented in archival footage, that exhibition centered on the portrait series Drag Pose, photographed by Michael Wakefield, and Reynolds’ ritual transformation into du Prey. Seated before The Vanity (1989), Reynolds publicly made himself up, donned a dark blue taffeta dress and entered the Drag Pose Cage (1990), where a temporarily corporeal du Prey would vogue, lounge, or speak to viewers as part of a daily endurance performance.