Kin: An inside look at Amsterdam’s first Drag King House
Silly Dick, Club ChUrch, 2019
Friday 9 September to Thursday 22 September 2022, 10am - 5pm each day ArtHouse Jersey, Greve de Lecq Barracks, St Mary, JE3 3AA
Tickets/Booking: No booking necessary
Falling on Jersey’s Pride Weekend, this photographic exhibition presents us with an inside look at Amsterdam’s first Drag King House -The House of Løstbois. Born out of a drag king academy set up by drag educator and mother ‘Taka Taka’ and artist‘ Father Julius’ in March 2019. The House of Løstbois began as a creative exploration of gender, and became so much more; a community, a support system, a family, a source of joy reaching far beyond pride. 'Kin' is a series of photographs made by documentary photographer (Jersey born, Amsterdam based) Stacey Yates-aka ‘The BillPlease’ and is the beginning of a broader project giving us a personal insight into the development of this queer world. In sharing these photos Bill provides us with glimpses of intimate and personal moments with his drag siblings while simultaneously exploring his own gender identity. ‘Kin’ is used in reference to the term ‘chosen family’.
Photographer and Process
As a documentary photographer, the main goal of Stacey Yates’ photography is to create narratives that helps her subjects feel seen both positively, and ‘truthfully’. This is of course always ultimately the image-makers’ truth but by informing our looking, we move closer to a deeper narrative which is central to Stacey’s process.
Photographing The Løstbois as a Løstboi herself - The Bill Please - Stacey is able to deepen her approach to storytelling as the narrative is also her lived experience.
From this position, and with her formal training in (BA) Documentary Photography, she captures the young beginnings of a new drag king scene in Amsterdam, at a very pivotal time. As the validity of the gender binary falls further into question and we start to push and challenge its limits, Stacey considers The House of Løstbois to be a new seminal example of drag king culture, globally.
The title for the project is inspired by the regular house meeting times at Club ChUrch and is also in reference to ‘chosen’ or ‘found’ family’ which is a term used within LGBTQI+ communitiesChosen families are usually made up of people who have intentionally chosen to embrace, nurture, love, and support each other regardless of blood or marriage. The Løstbois see themselves as brothers and their house mother is Taka Taka.
The long term intention for the photography project and the motivation for creating the work, is to contribute to queer history. Ultimately producing a printed book that captures this important period in time through the eyes of drag persona, The Bill Please, is a worthy pursuit at a pivotal time. A time when trans and non-binary people, are stepping up and demanding to be seen, and heard.
Documentary photographer Stacey Yates aka The Bill Please said:
“Exploring gender through drag has been an incredibly rich, expansive and creative experience for me. I’ve felt a great sense of belonging in finding a creative queer community in Amsterdam, one that perhaps I didn’t know I was missing. Being able to photograph the development of our drag house at such a pivotal time in queer history has and is an honour and a privilege and I’m delighted that Art House Jersey has supported me in bringing this work and story home to Jersey.”
Kin photographic exhibition runs from Friday 9 September to Thursday 22 September 2022 from 10am - 5pm each day
ArtHouse Jersey, Greve de Lecq Barracks, St Mary, JE3 3AA. No booking necessary.
