Are You A Boy Or A Girl?

Are You A Boy Or A Girl? (clip), Chaz Howkins, 2017, film

3 minute clip of a 30 minute film intended to be played on a loop.

Too often strangers feel that the way I look gives them the right to ask me “are you a boy or a girl?”.  I created a durational performance film of myself repeating this phrase because when people ask me this, it’s a one off experience for them, but it’s something that stays with me and continues to happen, so the idea is that the film plays continuously and the audience will dip in and out of this interrogative experience.

Face Your Fear

Face Your Fear (detail)

Face Your Fear

Face Your Fear - installation view, Chaz Howkins, 2017, installation

I created this installation in response to a week spend in Venice.  As someone with a phobia of pigeons, I spent most of the week in distress, having to dodge crowds of pigeons in the streets and hide in toilets when they wandered into cafes.  I chose to exaggerate the scale of my pigeon sculpture to make it more fearsome, so that the audience gets an idea of how pigeons make me feel.  There is a painting of Venice hidden behind the pigeon to represent how pigeons got in the way of fully enjoying my time spent there.

Process of creating Face Your Fear

Process images of creating Face Your Fear.  The sculpture was created using polystyrene, which I cut  by hand with a saw because the hot wire machine was out of use, and then coated in paper mache.  I chose for the finish to be bare newspaper as I felt newspapers and pigeons have a lot in common in terms of how they are discarded and overlooked by most.

Disposal Bags

Disposal Bag (series),  Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph / pen on found object 

Disposal Bag (series),  Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph / pen on found object

Disposal Bag (series),  Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph / pen on found object

Exploration of transphobia in public bathrooms.

Bathroom Misgendering

Excuse Me, Sir, Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

You Know This Is The Ladies Room, Right? (series), Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

You Know This Is The Ladies Room, Right? (series), Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

A photographic series exploring the experience of being misgendered in a gendered space - public bathrooms.

Strada Veneziane exhibition

Face Your Fear - exhibition view

Strada Veneziane is an exhibition of 4 artists responding to a trip to Venice, each of us chose to respond to the city rather than any of the artworks we saw at the Biennale.

Leg Hair photo series

Define Your Own Femininity,  Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

Femininity is Subjective, Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

I waxed one strip of my leg hair so I could write messages in the patch of bare skin surrounded by hair - however I think my leg hair is too light for this effect to be noticeable, so this photo shoot was not as successful as I'd hoped.