On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Morning Cloak
Tourmaline American
The work of activist, filmmaker, and writer Tourmaline involves deep research into under-acknowledged and underrepresented histories, particularly those that center queer and trans historical figures of color in nineteenth- and twentieth-century New York, from Seneca Village to Stonewall. In this self-portrait, she inhabits the persona of a nineteenth-century trans person, drawing inspiration, in part, from the lived experience of 1830s trans sex worker Mary Jones. Whereas the contemporary New York press disparaged Jones as a "man-monster," Tourmaline imagines the speculative possibility of her life in a bucolic, utopian setting (much like that found in Seneca Village), which provides respite from the dangers and disease of a crowded and growing metropolis.
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