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Why Tourmaline, Chronicler of Queer and Trans Histories, Has Devoted Her Debut Solo Show to Self-Portraits of Fantastic Pleasure
For her debut exhibition at Chapter NY, Tourmaline places herself at the center of tableaux about pleasure.
Summer Azure (2020). Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy of Chapter NY.
To encounter the work of filmmaker and artist Tourmaline is to encounter the work of a person who is enthralled by a meticulous chronicling of history.
This is one of the first things that crosses my mind as I listen to Tourmaline speak about the research processes that she employs in order to tell the stories of Black trans and queer people who have long shaped our world.
Coral Hairstreak, 2020. (Courtesy of Chapter NY)
Nearly two centuries ago, as cholera made its way from Canadian ports down the Hudson River, New Yorkers scrounged for respite from and within an increasingly unlivable city. It was a time not dissimilar to ours. Some mostly white New Yorkers found refuge in the city’s patronage system, with political candidates in poorer wards securing votes by paying for ferries to transport constituents to “pleasure grounds” upstate. Others enjoyed exclusive “pleasure gardens,” outdoor havens which existed throughout the country but were especially prominent in New York. With much of the city’s resources restricted to the white and the wealthy, autonomous communities built their own sanctuaries; throughout the 1820s, on the outskirts of lower Manhattan, Black-owned pleasure gardens flourished. The spirit of these gardens joyful, recuperative, filled with wonder run through the work of artist and activist Tourmaline, permeating her dream