Trans-masculine artist Opie Robinson has established a quietly confident practice drawing on their personal experiences to explore the presence and influence of gender in our lives and culture. Dilettante took a moment to chat with Opie on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.
You seem much more drawn to abstraction in your work than to figuration. Why is this?
I’m drawn to it currently because it’s teaching me a lot about figurative work. I’ve found it’s a great technical exercise in colour theory and several other practical pillars.
You mentioned that you're itching to get out into the world and explore art opportunities in new places. Where would you most like to travel, and why?
Right now, China. When I visited Shanghai in 2019 I saw unapologetic contestations of the western art canon and I loved it. I’d really like to explore those ideas and collaborate on something alongside the friends I made there.
You've spoken to me about your interest in "queering" tropes, both in your work and with your own presence/clothing. Tell us about what that means.
Queering hyper-masculine tropes, yeah. I’m privileged enough to do that safely, for the most part anyway. I enjoy presenting myself in ways that align with groups of men who have either historically or currently reject queerness or gate-keep cultures and activities they believe belong to them. By placing these tropes (so to speak) on a queer body, it changes the context of the look. I believe that doing this not only helps to slowly remove the fear or aversion some have of those appearances but it taints and spoils them for others. In some cases in disgusts and offends certain men and I enjoy making them squirm. I could write a book trying to answer this.
How do you use fashion and clothing to mediate your identity and relationship to the world?
In part the answer I gave you to the previous question answers this - I use it as a form of protest. I also use to as a means of foreplay or celebration - to frame my difference in appealing and attractive ways. Other times I use it for its functionality, to assist me while I work and move. Again I could spend a long time trying to unpack this question.
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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.
Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Models: Opie Robinson, Cooper Cooper, and Stykermeyer.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.
Despite his modestly self-effacing manner, Stykermeyer stands as an enduring and decidedly avant-garde presence in Australia's queer community. Dilettante caught up with Styker on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.
When did you first explore drag/performance art? What drew you to it?
In the late 70s, a little dive on William Street called Matches allowed me on their small perspex coloured dancefloor to perform I'm Bored by Iggy Pop and Are Friends Electric by Gary Numan. I was hooked!
I was already experimenting with makeup as a child, as a teenager I was a just like a Blitz Kid without even knowing it. Make-up made my heart 'brave'... The stage is the safest place outside my house.
You've been active in queer spaces for decades, now - what positive change have you witnessed?
I rarely go out these days unless performing, I'm not good at mingling so rarely hang around. There's still a great sense of humour in the queer world and I think the queer youth of today are very savvy. They're breaking down what they inherited and re-evaluating its relevence for themselves. It was indeed outdated, with only one umbrella encompassing everyone under it. We are not 'one thing' now, we are many unique, individual personalities. All valid, all as important as the next person, all seen. The spectrum that is gender is not only wonderful, it's natural.
You've worked in many roles and across many mediums in your career. What are you most proud of?
I've done mainstream and underground movies as cast and crew. Collaborated with some legendary artists and performers, the Sydney Opera House, those infamous Gigantic Parties over east and even painted and sculpted. The proudest moments though are the later period. The collaboration with Ash Baroque has extended my time out there and I'm so grateful. Together we have created some of the most beautiful alternative images and theatrical pieces. Things so moving and soulful. Our uniqueness has a thick skin around it. Our hard work has had an incredible run so far. I can also say (and smile) we are nowhere near the end. Proud.
You're somewhat renowned for your elaborate costuming. What makes a great outfit?
Personally speaking. It cannot be just a lingering wish from a festival you never want to end.. A costume must hum. It must add to a performance. Like music to a song, it should say what the lyrics do not. A costume can be simply 'painted on' but I also hand sew, glue, staple, and tape. I weave, I stitch, I paint, and I dye. All that 'purpose and meaning' infused into my costumes blurs the lines of physical/spiritual/theatrical. They are heavy with intent. They 'deliver'. Perhaps they could possibly perform without me.
How do fashion and clothing allow you to mediate your identity?
I'm an eccentric. I'm in a bubble. I don't like to draw attention. I am not a follower of fashion. Most people suspect I am homeless. I often get asked if I've eaten today... the beard adds to that. I wear op shop clothes, or clothes I have altered to fit my flow. I'm right into dark buttoned up collarless shirts now. I love sparrow colours (browns), I notice colour snobs that way. A dark grey-blue tone is emerging now... I change slowly but surely. Summer's always problematic, medication makes me photosensitive, and also forces me to wear something on my head year round - I miss hatlessness! Love natural fibres.
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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.
Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Models: Strykermeyer, Junior Moyo.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.
Cooper Cooper's particular brand of contemporary polymathy has captured hearts and imaginations across Perth's creative community. At times an oil painter with a reserved intellectualism, at others a DJ with a wild streak, Dilettante sits down for a glimpse of the real Cooper on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.
What are you most interested in capturing when you make a painting?
I try to capture a likeness without clutching too dearly to photographic realism, I capture emotion through colour, I am obsessed with juxtaposing imagery, realism with abstraction.
What makes a good portrait subject? Do you have a dream subject?
Connection and trust, when you paint someone you are responsible for representing everything that comes along with them, their identities often their traumas and their dysphoria. It often makes it hard to tread within my lane and I love to know someone well enough and have them know me well enough to collaborate. That said I feel like Arca would make an amazing portrait!
How has dissecting your own identity affected your practice/perspective as a portraitist?
I view portraiture as an age long cultural documentation of the dominant values of a time. Now that we are living in a time of visibility, change and identity, it is a really important time to be a portrait artist. As a queer DJ who is deeply involved in Perth’s underground community I have a lot of access to the passion and the intimacy of my community. There is something really validating about making an image of a queer person in an age old medium such as oil painting.
How do you mediate your own identity through clothing and fashion?
As a Non-binary person my identity is constantly ping ponging between the pressures of cishetronormity put upon me by straight society and also from internalised homophobia within the community and my inner trans feminine pull. With clothing and makeup you can capture an entirely different reading and treatment from people. The act of dressing yourself can signify so many things about you, ward certain people off, invite certain people in, tell so many stories and leave people with so many questions from a single glance. Most of what I wear is situational, usually evoking a certain energy and disrupting it with an opposing energy; masculine with feminine, distressed with composed mundane with high fashion.
You're quite the DJ - you kept us dancing all day on set. Can you share a few of your current favourite tracks with us?
Barker - Paradise Engineering (Lush Ambient Techno)
Bufiman - Hoolock Rock (Wonky Housey Banger)
Alex Cortex - Emergence (Poolside After-Hours Overstimulation)
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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.
Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Model: Cooper Cooper.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.
For those privvy to Perth's vibrant hospitality scene, Reid Günter has long been a familiar face. Now, Reid is building upon her experience in the industry to foster a safer, stronger community for womxn through her work with Mix Haus. Dilettante caught up with Reid on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.
Earlier this year you co-founded Mix Haus. Can you tell us about the project and what it works to achieve?
Our core mission is to create an open and safe community to support all womxn in hospitality. The womxn who founded Mix Haus—Shirley Yeung, Pippa Canavan and myself—aim to educate, train and nurture future and current industry leaders to sustain more opportunities for womxn in the industry. It’s a group for womxn, founded by womxn. Mix Haus is here to bring a mix of people, with a mix of talent, to open a mix of opportunities!
What provided the initial spark for the founding of Mix Haus?
The idea for Mix Haus was born from frustration; of there not being a direct resource or community support that was purely for womxn in hospitality in Perth, especially one with a queer perspective.
Mix Haus prefers the term ‘womxn’, which may be an unfamiliar term to some of our readers. Would you be able to expand on the inclusivity of this term and why it’s the right choice for Mix Haus?
Womxn is a term intended to be more inclusive of transgender women. A lot of the time queer womxn are less recognised within an array of circumstances and professions, and this all-encompassing term celebrates the equality that everyone deserves.
I've heard you mention your new focus on being "unapologetically" trans. What does that look like for you?
My progression within my own transition has been stunted by an engrained construct called ‘permission-seeking’. Transitioning doesn’t look like any one thing; more often than not people have a pre-conceived idea of what a transgender body looks like. I have spent most of my transition seeking permission for validation and acceptance of my transgender body, trying to cater to what people expect a transgender woman to look like. Realising the dangers of conforming to what others expect of me, I am moving forward, unapologetically, into my individual self. I dress and present however I feel comfortable in the moment, and that does not make me any less transgender or any less of a woman.
How do fashion and clothing allow you to mediate your identity?
The clothing I wear and the fashion choices I make solely express how I feel on a day. As a transgender woman people continue to judge me silently, verbally, or physically based on what I wear. This is obviously tumultuous and taxing, but after a period of feeling silenced and seeking permission for basic respect, I have come to a point where I will no longer apologise for the clothes I wear. Instead, I will enjoy them and continue to be proud in my identity as a transgender woman.
Your personal wardrobe is entirely black! What draws you to black?
In the beginning of my transition, I decidedly wore black as a safety measure. I thought that by wearing monochromatic black, people wouldn’t feel so obliged to confront or attack me. However, as I’ve become more in touch with who I am, I now understand the power in limiting the colour that I wear. I choose to wear black as I don’t need colour to represent who I am. Black is every colour, combined. This choice has opened my eyes up to texture, quality, pattern, shape and structure.
Colours and shades are not assigned to any gender. Understanding this created a huge impact on me; since then, I feel challenged to pick out what I wear in a day with this limitation on colour—call it a gentle pushing of boundaries.
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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.
Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Models: Reid Günter, Junior Moyo, Strykermeyer, Opie Robinson.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.
Dilettante meets musician, DJ, and all-round bright young thing Junior Moyo on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.
When did you first come to music, and how? What role does music play in your life now?
I first came to music through church. Both my parents are pastors, and so my whole life I’ve been invested in being able to serve. I started playing drums in the praise and worship team and since then I’ve always had this love for the way people not only connect with music, but how they respond to this connection.
This is what led me towards becoming a DJ and sparked my interest in production. There’s an amazing, elusive complexity to making and playing music - one you don’t see until you are in that position. That’s what it comes down to for me; making an impact using the thing I love the most, through the thing that I believe is the most powerful resource anyone can access: music.
You now run events celebrating black music. How does music help to connect communities?
Music has always been an extremely important part of expressing culture and self. There are so many distinct elements within music that are directly tied to a particular cultures or communities (and almost all have stemmed from being black or queer). I find it amazing how artists are able to include a variety of these elements and find a way to perfectly portray their identity within culture and community.
I currently see issues within our electronic music scene here on Boorloo - issues that shouldn’t still be a thing in our current day and age. Seeing events and collectives repeatedly booking the same white, male DJs is kind of just sad at this point. Especially when the music being played is black music… which is all music (do your research)! When there’s diversity, there becomes space to open your mind to not only a world of music, but also to ideals that you would’ve never considered. That’s how we connect cultures and expand communities.
Have you got any events coming up that you're especially excited for?
I’m lucky enough to be running my own events which really try and emphasise celebrating black music. These events are called ‘Ndawonye’ which means 'together' in Zulu. I have a couple of dates in November which I’m really looking forward to!!
Tuesday the 23rd of November we’re in the bird courtyard, and I’ll be doing a monster 6 hour set!
Then I have a Ndawonye x Si Paradiso basement takeover coming up on the 27th featuring some of Boorloo's finest artists.
All info can be found @nda.wonye on the gram.
What tracks do you have on high rotation at the moment?
Spells - Greentea Peng
Tectonic - Tirzah
Feel the Feeling - Guy Contact
Normalizo - Letta Mbulu
I see that you're quite the dancer, when the time is right. What's your perfect party outfit?
If I’m going out with the intention to really party, I’ll be keeping it as simple as I possibly can. Cropped tank with a pair of slim trousers and loafers. Most likely all black too, hehe!
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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.
Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Models: Junior Moyo, Opie Robinson, and Cooper Cooper.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.