It's now Hamilton's turn to see an art and film exhibition profiling over twenty Kiwis who define their own gender identity outside conventional norms. Assume Nothing, which has travelled widely around New Zealand in the past year, features twenty-three provocative images by photographer Rebecca Swann, eight animated portraits and a documentary by award-winning film maker Kirsty McDonald. Waikato Museum will feature the exhibition - which contains several nude images - from tomorrow Saturday 31 October until February 2010. Swann says it'll be the last time the works can be seen in New Zealand before the exhibition goes overseas. Among those photographed are high-profile transgender New Zealanders Carmen Rupe and Georgina Bayer, intersex activist and spokesperson Mani Bruce Mitchell, and artists Shigeyuki Kihara and Ema Lyon from Pacific Sisters. "The exhibition reveals the extraordinary and ordinary worlds of individuals who define themselves as transgender, FtM's, MtF's, cross dressers, intersex activists, drag queens, drag kings, gender fluid, fa'afafine, whakawahine, sista girls, feminine men, or masculine women," explains Swann. First exhibited in Lower Hutt last year, Assume Nothing has also been seen in Auckland, Christchurch and Palmerston North, where its presence was described as "a bold move" in the conservative town. There's more information about Assume Nothing at the Waikato Museum here.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Friday, 30th October 2009 - 1:06pm