4: The Man-Monster's Legacy

Continued from: 3: Questions for Viewers

Though mocked, imprisoned, and rendered "notorious" in his own day, Sewally has recently become an important person in queer, black, and transgender history, and his story has inspired artists.

Imagination and reenactment have taken over where the historical record ends, as we see in three examples of contemporary artists who draw upon Sewally's story and the Man-Monster print.

Lezley Saar's Portrait

Lezley Saar's larger than life-sized mixed-media portrait of Sewally was inspired by the artist's encountering the Man-Monster print in Charles Addams' Dear Dead Days, a book of historical oddities and images published in 1959.

Knowing little else about his story than what the image and caption provided, Saar's portrait nonetheless intuits several key truths about his story as we now know it. Placing a convict's plate around his neck, she likens the print to a modern day "mug shot."

But this is a double portrait, as Sewally's other face appears upside down and to the right, his other body floating mysteriously upwards and off the canvas. Neither body is the true Sewally and one is impelled to re-orient ones gaze to see it all. Saar's poetic image places Sewally/Jones in a space between genders.

Anarchy Andi's Tatoo

In homage to Sewally, Anarchy Andi flaunts the imputed stigma of queerness back at society, as the print itself becomes part of hir "rig" with which to go "sailing along the street."

Vaginal Davis' Painting

Vaginal Davis, performance artist and queer curator, has lectured about Peter Sewally, the "She-Monster of Olde New York" as she calls him, and aspires to play him/her on screen. Ms. Vaginal Davis is a Berlin-based visual and performance artist, punk rock musician, and curator of early cinema.

Below:

"VP as PS"

Painting of Vaginal Davis as Peter Sewally aka Mary Jones aka Eliza Smith

working title of upcoming film "The Five Points" -

Below: Painting by Vaginal Davis. Shim Who Must Be Obeyed (2011).

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End of Man-Monster Exhibit

To return to the introduction to the exhibit or to earlier sections click below:

3: Questions for Viewers

The Producers of the Man-Monster Exhibit

The Curators of the Man-Monster Exhibit

More Information About Sewally and the Man-Monster Print