Transcestry is no regular exhibition. Bringing together 1000 objects and stories from trans, non-binary and intersex communities, it brings together everything from protest placards to personal ephemera to create a wide-ranging view of gender diverse life.
Here, artwork and zines are displayed alongside tights, items of clothing, tickets and razors – placing creative work exploring transness in dialogue with quotidian artefacts from individuals’ private gender journeys. Presented alongside these various objects are modest, brown tags carrying a note from the original owner about its significance, often written with earnest joy or misty-eyed sentimentality.
To be in a space which centres trans, non-binary and intersex lives, their personal histories and joys, is a special experience. Nowhere is there an impulse to explain or, worse, justify oneself for a cis audience: it’s a rare opportunity for gender diverse perspectives to be presented in an accepting, affirming environment and a place where trans+ folks can see their experiences reflected back to them.
For the past decade, The Museum of Transology has been dedicated to faithfully archiving gender diverse life for future generations and Transcestry is a celebration of ten years of this vital work. Below, E-J Scott, Founder of the Museum of Transology and a Senior Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, pulls out five key works from Transcestry and explains their significance.
TICKET TO ANOHNI AND THE JOHNSONS’ CONCERT
Marlo Mortimer, Letter To My Little Trans Self in collaboration with hotpencil press. MOT/2024/LTMLTS/007
Tag: “MY TICKET TO SEE ANOHNI AND THE JOHNSONS AT SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE IN 2005. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER PERFORM LIVE. I HAVE NOW SEEN HER 7 TIMES. SHE IS A TRUE LOVE OF MINE. I FOUND SOMETHING IN HER MUSIC I BADLY NEEDED TO HEAR 💟 THANK YOU ANOHNI!”
E-J: “Just like in the gay community, cultural icons act as role models for the trans community that we turn to in the best of times and the hardest of times. Anohni actually kissed Martha P Johnson’s hand! We have been supporting each other across generations in the fight for trans human rights.”
BLACK DRESS
Travis Alabanza, Original Collection, 2014. MOT000052/1
Tag: “this wasn’t the first dress I ever wore, but it was the first dress I put on and thought… “oh my god, I look good, I look like, me” I truly felt, if possible, like my gender.”
E-J: “When you visit the TRANSCESTRY exhibition, the first thing you’ll see is Zsarday Forde’s fur coat (AKA Skinny Bitch), then a video of her performing in a fur coat at the Black Cap where she is introduced onto the stage by Regina Fong (1992). Then you’ll see Mzz Kimberley’s first dress, she was the one who saved Zsarday’s coat when she died on her 40th birthday, and then years later donated it to the Museum of Transology. Then you’ll see the first dress Travis Alabanza felt truly reflected their gender identity. In the next video after Zsarday’s, Travis Alabanza restages her act move-for-move at Duckie’s Gay Shame (2019). Their act was directed by Nando Messiah’s, whose dress from her performance series Sissy’s Progress (2013).
This lineage proves trans women of colour have been saving their transcestry long before British Museums were.”
GREEN TIGHTS “WIG”
Charlie Craggs, Letter To My Little Trans Self in collaboration with hotpencil press. MOT/2024/LTMLTS/011
Tag: “These green tights were my ‘hair’ as a child, and in retrospect my first experience of ✨GENDER EUPHORIA✨”
E-J: “I mean everyone knows how hilarious and brave and honest Charlie Craggs is – now we have evidence she’s been cheeky since she was a kid! This object is full of so much trans joy you can’t help but smile imagining her running around with it on her head.”
PEBBLES IN A BAG
National Day of Trans Collecting, M Shed Bristol, funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. MOT/2024/BRIS/010.1
Tag: “The floor of my dressing room! While stuck in the closet at home, the most convenient place I can dress how I want to when going out is a driveway that leads to an alleyway behind everyone’s back-gardens. Today like many days, the stone are wet courtesy of the delightful British weather :D”
E-J: “There is so much meaning in this little money bag of pebbles. The way trans people can be forced into the closet, just like lesbian and gay people were and still are in some cultures for their own safety. It shows the determination nonetheless, to live our lives fully. It shows how these situations can lead to danger – just imagine the misreporting to police that could happen if a trans misogynist saw her changing outside… And finally, her inspirational sense of humour – despite the trauma embedded in this story, she can still crack a joke about the English weather.”
SILVER RAZOR
National Day of Collecting Manchester, Manchester Central Library, funded by National Heritage Lottery Fund. Manchester, 20.04.2024. MOT/2024/MANC/002
Tag: “My dad gave me this razor when I was 15. No one ever taught him to shave so when I came out he wanted to make sure I would not be left alone like him.”
E-J: “This razor shows just how much trans kids are loved by families everywhere. The week before Christmas, one of our youngest volunteers from the Trans Kids Deserve Better collective took their own life. Just this Thursday, a Mum, Dad and sister flew over to visit the TRANSCESTRY exhibition all the way from Israel to see the black vest their trans daughter died in. The Museum of Transology’s collection shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. Our young people need our whole LGBTIQA+ community’s love in order to thrive. This young guy’s Dad is a legend and his son has a brighter future because of him.”
