LIVE Magazine Issue #269 April 13, 2018

Michael Childers: Having a Ball
January 20, 2018 – May 28, 2018
Palm Springs Art Museum, Clayes III Wing
Palm Springs Art Museum proudly presents
rarely-seen portraits by Michael
Childers that explore the artistic experimentation,
social shifts, and gender
play that defined the cultural spirit of the
1970s. As evident in these vibrant portraits,
the foundation for the emergence
of a transgender rights movement can
be traced to this cultural era as captured
by Childers. As a young photographer
for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine,
Childers’ work creates a documentary
photographic continuum for the
exhibition Andy Warhol: Prints from
the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer
and his Family Foundation. Images
of the enigmatic Warhol, members of
Warhol’s famous New York studio, The
Factory, and other avant-garde personalities
experimenting with gender and
dress animate and enliven this era—a
time before the AIDS epidemic, when
non-conforming sexuality was a gesture
of mischievous defiance rather than a
political act of survival.
In 1976 Childers photographed participants
at a Los Angeles drag ball.
Dubbed “Flaming Creatures,” this group
of thirty-eight revealing portraits captures
the amusing gender play during
an earlier, more innocent time. Through
an attention to gestures, costume, and
telling details, each of Childers’ photographs
capture both the persona and
the personalities of his subjects. Childers’
photographs of Warhol use subtle strategies
of gesture, props, and doubling
devices to go beyond the inscrutable
icon that the artist cultivated, bringing to
light his complicated personality below
the surface persona. Childers captured
The Factory’s infamous denizens in photographs
that uncover the multiple identities
at play when gender, personality,
persona, and performing roles combine.
Although more known for his images of
famous actors, writers, visual artists, and
performers, Childers brings the same
sensitivity to the drag ball’s unknown
merrymakers. Through Childers’ lens
these figures radiate a cheeky playfulness
as they experiment with makeup,
wedding dresses, tuxedos, and feather
boas to expose the artifice of traditional
gender identity and the joy of self-expression.
These images provide insight into a
history that precedes the public visibility
of lives and identities blurring traditional
gender definitions. As a participant in
both The Factory and the entertainment
culture of Los Angeles, Childers developed
a photographic language to
capture the radical potential of those
who dared to use their own bodies as
a way to reinvent our understanding of
gender. He enlarges our understanding
of the cultural revolution Warhol promoted
through photographs that inform and
delight as they remind us of the history
behind our current moment.
This exhibition is organized by Palm
Springs Art Museum from The Michael
Childers Archive and funded in part by
the Photography Collection Council.
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