NETHERLANDS GUIDE

Moshiel & Lady Sinagaga, New York USA (2019). Photo: Leon Hendrickx
DRAG POWER
Gender, pride & glamour
at CODA Museum Apeldoorn
TEXT: CODA
Imposing, flamboyant and eccentric are
words that often come to mind when
you think about drag queens. More and
more often, drag is a topic of conversation
on television, online, in series, documentaries
and newspapers. RuPaul’s
Drag Race has made drag well-known
worldwide, and also into quite a commercial
phenomenon. Drag, which was
once mainly known in the ‘underground
culture’ within the LGBTQI-community,
has now almost become mainstream.
But what exactly does drag stand for?
Is the name as an acronym a precise
representation of what drag means:
‘dressed resembling a girl’? Is it only
a game of dressing up as the opposite
sex, all about appearance and fun? Or
is there more to it? The exhibition Drag
Power - Gender, pride & glamour showcases
the exuberant looks, but above
all, what is behind the sequins and under
the wigs.
Drag queens and kings use their body
and appearance as a ‘living canvas’ to
tell a story. Where one has an activistrelated
message, others mainly enjoy the
temporary change into their exuberant
alter-ego. Dressing up as the opposite
Sander den Baas aka Lady Galore, from the
series LAK! (2014). Photo: Jan van Breda
54 | Issue 71 | November 2019