We asked some of the community’s leading lights ‘What does reinvention mean to you?’ and here’s what they had to say:
Reinvention for me is about going from a non-voting, door knocking Jehovah’s Witness, to a door-knocking political activist. About learning to move through the world as a man, after being brought up to move through the world as a woman. About morphing from a fresh faced baby dyke into a queer, hairy, transfag. Madonna ain’t got a thing on the reinvention I’ve done baby!
Aram Hosie, Pride Patron 2008.
Every morning I wake up as a changed person. If you’re any good in politics you’ve got to listen (not just hear) and make sure you do change. Never-changing zealots in politics and the gay movement are dangerous. Professionally, and personally as a gay man, I’m always reinventing myself – it’s healthy, natural and keeps your mind active.
John Hyde, Member for Perth and first ever openly gay man elected to a Government Assembly House.
It’s about ‘LOOKING’ at myself HONESTLY and with a microscope. If I were a WHALE, I would scrape my body on the seabed to knock those barnacles off, revealing an aqua-line form so I could speed thru that water with grace and ease… But to steal ‘identity’ from the next generation of BABY DYKES, BABY DRAGS, CUBS and YOUNG FASHION VICTIMS, ARTISTS, POETS, WRITERS, SECURITY GUARDS, HAIRDRESSERS and POLITICIANS? Well, I think that’s a crime and in this country we have plenty of memories of being MISTAKEN as far as the GENERATIONS go. WE ARE NOT BROKEN, JUST VERY BLAND right now! BLAND? SPICE IT UP!
Strykermeyer, drag performer, BAFTA award winner and living legend.
When you are not naively transfixed with the idea of creating something ‘new’, but instead think about crafting ‘new combinations’ from everything that surrounds you, then you immediately understand how a lifetime can be consumed by art. As an artist, I need to infect everything I work on, I need to devour it, therefore everything I touch I have to reinvent.
Matthew Lutton, director of PICA’s upcoming Artage show The Red Shoes.
Reinvention means turning the world upside down, not accepting its assumptions, judgments and stereotypes. It involves being yourself, not what others expect you to be, and feeling great about that.
Bev Fabb, Minister for the Uniting Church.
im someone who strives to reinvent herself every day when i wake up in the morning to create and be the person i want to let people see me as. i love to see how people think of me when leaving the front door of my house, dressing creatively and being myself. i would have to say that i hang out with a lot of inspiring people in my life which help me become a nutcase, but if i know i can make one sad little soul laugh with me my job as a person is done.
Giselle, Asian drag sensation and manager of Connections’ The Glamour Addicts.
Reinvention allows us to think of the concepts of time and change – keeping our approach to the world dynamic and aerated. If we don’t reinvent ourselves and our vehicles of human society regularly what we do and make can be bland and desiccated.
Terri-ann White, writer.
Reinvention to me means never being afraid of change and always being open to new experiences and opportunities to help better you and further your self as an individual!
Swish Everready, drag artist and general trouble maker.
Reinvention means everything to The Court. It’s exactly what The Court has been through over the last two years.
Bree Maddox, owner of The Court Hotel.
To me, reinvention means doing things differently, and better. It is about evolution in an ongoing and ever improving manner. We love Perth for what it is, but nothing really stays the same. Excitement comes from new opportunities and experiences. Changes mean growth and growth means success.
Lisa Scaffidi, Lord Mayor of Perth.
The idea of reinvention goes hand in hand with the camp sensibility – the notion that identity is not fixed, but is something than can be continually reconstructed and used for defense or attack. This is what I do with my art practice – everything in my drawings and films is ‘stolen’ from other sources and recontextualised, so I suppose my work is a constant process of reinvention.
Andrew Nicholls, artist.
Reinvention has to have something from your past in there somewhere, something to build upon; if you don’t then it’s not reinvention at all, just a coat of paint. Our past is and will always be part of who we are. It’s all about the journey and an integral part of anybody’s development. We love the new, the now & the fresh, but we also demand the certain, the familiar & what is safe.
Gavin Kingsbury, manager of Connections Nightclub.
From our perspective we would suggest that we all need to reconcile with the original inhabitants of this country before this nation reinvents itself as truly inclusive. In that regard, Aboriginal people and the Queer community share the common ground of discrimination that currently excludes us from many communities. We need to work together to overcome that discrimination and to assist in the reinvention of the nation!
Jim Morrison & Alan Carter, Queers For Reconciliation.
Reinvention means using the wisdom of our past experiences, but trying new and different things to show our ‘reinvented face’ to the world!
Dani Wright, coordinator of The Freedom Centre.
Pride is the best event for bringing people from the Gay and Lesbian community out in force, for one good party.
Holly Wood, Sunday Times social writer.
Reinvention is the chance to embrace a different side of me, to turn people’s expectations on their heads. It’s a liberating experience that lets you become someone new.
Zac Gower, star of Pride WA’s Confessions of a Lying, Cheating Pervert!
Compiled by Scott-Patrick Mitchell.
