This article is part of Hyperallergic‘s Pride Month Seriesfeaturing an interview with a different emerging or mid-career transgender or non-binary artist each weekday throughout June.
The canvases of Cassidy Early, a non-binary trans painter living and working in Chicago, exude a sense of peace and strength. In “Early After” (2022), the likeness of a short-haired figure gazing into the distance is reflected on rows of tiles inspired by those in their mother’s bathroom; the self-portrait is partially obstructed by the stems of two dandelions, flowers often considered garden weeds yet symbolizing the artist’s constancy and protection. The composition juxtaposes different views and geometries, embracing the ambiguity of perspective. Like many of Early’s paintings, it invites us to simultaneously question and accept the image presented to us, capitalizing on the discoveries that occur within the space of this tension. In the interview below, the artist reflects on his experience of grief, Dungeons & Dragons, and how arts organizations might better approach the work of individuals who don’t fit into a strict gender binary.
Hyperallergic: What is the current orientation of your artistic practice?
Cassidy Early: Over the past three years I have worked on grief and bereavement through the prism of still life and a few integrated self-portraits. One of the first paintings I did after my mother died, “Mom’s Ring” (2021), refers to a letter from my child myself to my present – a letter of sweet reassurance that everything will be fine.
As my grief has expanded and eased around the edges, I feel like the work is also allowed to expand. My piece “Trans People are Angels” (2022), a portrait of a headless angelic ghost version of myself with a thin rainbow hovering in the clouds around me, reached through my own experiences to touch the community that yearns for the security to rest in the warm light of day.
I displayed it on a yellow paper wall installation that I put up a few times, a reference to my mother’s last days while writing us illegible notes and missives about her life. Earlier versions of it appeared in my apartment for a show called My mother’s funeral; at Lauren Powell Projects for my show In the light of dayand most recently at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago with a traveling group show I took part in this year called aesthetics of loss. I share updates on these and other projects on my instagram.
H: In what ways, if any, does your gender identity play a role in your experience as an artist?
THIS : My work has always been about how and what I feel, so of course that will never be separated from my identity as a trans-mask person. As a practicing artist, I would love for organizations to stop having framed shows like “Femmes+” or “Womyn.” It feels like a side step that frequently invites me into a space that I have deliberately and publicly stepped out of, while simultaneously leaving trans women wondering if this is TERF territory.
H: Which artists inspire your work today? What are your other sources of inspiration?
THIS : Dungeons and Dragons has had a huge influence on my work lately. I play with different groups of friends twice a week, a group here in Chicago and a totally virtual one that has been going on since almost the start of the lockdown. As a former Catholic, I find the expanding legends and lore of Dungeons & Dragons more exciting than the fantasy of Catholicism or Greco-Roman myth. Some artists I’ve been really liking lately are Philip Guston, the artist known as Jess, and Bonnard.
H: What are your hopes for the LGBTQIA+ community right now?
THIS : I hope cis people will step up and elect politicians who don’t try to kill trans kids. It’s hard to focus on anything else when there’s a mass exodus of states that endlessly come up with laws to inflict as much harm as possible and keep indoctrinating children endlessly into cis-straight hell. Other than that, keep taking care of each other.
