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Lady of the Flowers

  • Max Ferguson

Lady of the Flowers by Max Ferguson.
A photograph of “Lady of the Flowers” by Max Ferguson, as shown in the exhibition “Flourishing: Somehow We Stay Attuned” at Tangled Art + Disability in 2020. Mounted on a white gallery wall, Ferguson’s photograph is a self portrait of the artist wearing a pink full head mask with fleshy looking ridges surrounding eight orange eyes in an insect-like pattern. The mask features an open mouth with multiple rows of sharp translucent teeth, including large fangs protruding from exposed gums. The artist clutches pink long stemmed roses across his bare chest, and a red rose is caught in the teeth of his mask. He is wearing black briefs and lying on a white duvet beside a brown faux fur blanket. Photo courtesy of Tangled Art + Disability.

Disabled, mad, trans artist Max Ferguson’s photograph Lady of the Flowers (ArtsEverywhere, 2020) was originally presented at Tangled Art + Disability (2020) as part of the exhibition Flourishing: Somehow We Stay Attuned. Journalist Luke Ottenhof (2018) discussed Ferguson’s work in a profile of the exhibition for CBC Arts:

[Ferguson has] created three self-portraits that reflect and interrogate their existence at the intersections of trans and disabled experiences. The photographs portray Ferguson in differing environs, adorned with grotesque, insectoid masks which they created with the help of a California-based prosthetics company.

“They’re not meant to shock,” Ferguson explains. “For me, it’s about trying to viscerally work through my inability to express myself as someone who identifies as trans and as someone who has been othered.” They add with a grin, “It’s campy and it’s drag-y.””

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