Wigs & Gloves Book

86 Pages, 18×22 cm

2022

Photography: Julia Gaes

Essay: Joanna Staśkiewicz

Design: MÄHLERBRANDT

Concept Buch: Julia Gaes, MÄHLERBRANDT

Mentoring: Prof. Linn Schröder & Dr. Melanie Haller

Print: K-Books – Druck & Verlag Kettler GmbH

Bookbinding: Bumake GmbH

Type: Suisse Int’l, SangBleu Kingdom

Printrun: 70

Drag, burlesque, queerlesque, vaudeville, cabaret, circus, belly dance and acrobatics – artists question gender norms in their performances. They create a queer space that creates freedom beyond binary thinking worlds. With humour, eroticism, irony and tragedy, their performance is political and queerfeminist. In the loop of the 16mm film, elements that stand for power relations and feminist movements in our history are shown. Nostalgia, pop culture and fashion styles flow as quotations into the artists’ performance and so they continuously discuss feminist issues anew. The Polaroid, as an ephemeral medium, visualises this retro-nostalgia and refers to the Carte de la Visite, cards used by the first burlesque performers in the mid-19th century to present themselves.