ZACKARY DRUCKER & RHYS ERNST – POST/ RELATIONSHIP/ X
2014-09-22Relationship chronicles Drucker and Ernst’s private moments as an opposite-oriented transgender couple, during which time Ernst transitioned from female to male and Drucker transitioned from male to female. Described by Drucker as “pure diary”, Relationship positions the document as a malleable tool for producing narrative and counternarrative form, through snapshots that depict the artists in various states of attachment and moments of solitude. “My life with Rhys was perplexing and captivating, and I wanted to remember it,” she says.
This exhibition includes images presented at the Whitney and the AGO along with many others that are part of the original series but have not yet been shown. Perhaps the complexity of this iteration lies in how stages of detachment and intimacy are signified through differences of mood and tone as opposed to chronology; whereas Relationship’s previous presentations cultivated a more celebratory and sentimental portal into the artists’ life together, this broader range of material speaks to Drucker and Ernst’s more recent stage of individuation as they initiate a separation of their romantic partnership while continuing their creative collaboration.
Throughout the series, Drucker and Ernst portray each other and themselves as both whole and fragmented subjects – figures and bodies obscured by objects or reflected in mirrors, and situated within environments ranging from domestic interiors to lush, outdoor settings. The processes of performing and documenting, which are more in the service of “making worlds” than evidence-gathering, suggest a dysfunctionality to these documents which fail a clinical expectation.
Opposite – Relationship, #59, 2008-14
Exhibition runs through to November 1st, 2014
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
2635 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles
CA 90034
