This article is part of Hyperallergic‘s Pride Month Seriesfeaturing an interview with a different emerging transgender or non-binary artist each weekday throughout June.
For the latest installment in our ongoing series, we spoke to Duff Norris, a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist who works primarily in performance and photography. Norris often uses self-portraiture to explore the experience of being a trans man while probing societal expectations that surround masculinity. Norris spoke to Hyperallergic about his desire to represent tenderness and manhood as compatible parts of manhood and his hopes for an interconnected future in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Hyperallergic: What is the current orientation of your artistic practice?
Duff Norris: Artistically, I am interested in connecting and exchanging with my audience and the participants. My current work centers around themes of masculinity and the negotiation of different norms and stories from diverse viewpoints and backgrounds. I deeply desire an understanding of manhood that includes tenderness and openness that does not oppose manhood. Much of my work explores how I and other men come to this conversation by creating images and performances seeking expressions of intimacy and making space for these ideas and their synergies and contradictions.
H: In what ways, if any, does your gender identity play a role in your experience as an artist?
DN: My interest in these themes stems directly from my experience as a transgender man. Throughout the journey of coming out, transitioning, and living as trans, there has always been a natural curiosity, critical thinking, and experimental aspect to my perspective that also guides my artistic practice. Evidenced by my series Transmen Pietas (2021-2022), I have repeatedly recreated the pieta with myself as Mary and various trans men I transitioned to as the figure of Jesus slain on my lap. I am drawn to this image because it aligns trans-masculinity with the divine while representing the tragedy and inflicted damage we live with. Also, it is important to me to cradle these beloved men and represent motherhood and trans-male care by embodying the position of Mary. Each image is taken from a personal space of the model on my lap and alludes to her identity and story beyond her trans status.
H: Which artists inspire your work today? What are your other sources of inspiration?
DN: Three artists that I think of frequently in connection with my work are Shaun Leonardo’s performance work and how his engagements translate into pieces. Tommy Kha’s images are a touchstone for the layered opportunities of a single image and multiple images talking to each other. I also look at the staging and performativity of Janine Antoni’s work and the presence of her body and that of others as an aspect of the dialogue.
H: What are your hopes for the LGBTQIA+ community right now?
DN: As events unfold, I hope we will continue to rely on our tenacity as well as our tenderness. I hope we invest in each other and in systems of release, resilience and redundancy. The best minds I know suggest that this is done through consensus building, collaboration, and mutual support among multiple, diverse, and intersecting groups. I hope that we are focused on creating safety nets, networks of care and contingencies for and between our different constituencies.
