Cekca Het/
Trans Panic
(Rhiannon Lowe)
Recent Shows:
Aggregate 2022, Freelands Foundation, London
"Man, I can’t tell you how relieved I was when you took off your dress, you didn’t have a dick", 2021/22
10 March - 29 May 2022
This is what Clarence says to Alabama in True Romance, as they sit high up, in front of the huge JMC truck billboard. Clarence’s post-sex relief is obvious; less so to most is the passing slap in the face of anyone watching who just might be trans or non-binary. Aw the early ‘90s. I still love and still hate that film. Some things in the world have changed; a great deal hasn’t. This is a collection of reworked pieces, objects and ephemera from Cekca Het: Trans Panic, my recent exhibitions and performances based around a never-to-make-it noise band project. Cekca Het: Trans Panic celebrates and explores my identity pre-, during and post transition, through a mix of text, installation, moving image, sound, costume and performance. The work collapses my past and present, seeks domestic escape from medical horrors and social fears, considers my wriggles for position within trans spaces and art communities, and takes swipes at transphobic individuals and media.
The work was at Freelands Foundation gallery space, as part of their Artist Programme cohort 2 fellowship programme show. Other artists in the exhibition included: Freya Dooley, Rebecca Gould, Becca+Clare, Will Roberts, Neasa Terry (all g39/Cardiff); Jasmin Marker, Brown+Bri, Thomas Wells, Mitch Conlon, Jane Butler (all PS2/Belfast); James Clarkson, Maud Haya-Baviera, Victoria Lucas, Conor Rogers, Joanna Whittle (all Site Gallery/Sheffield); Rae-Yen Song, Jenny Hogarth, Eothen Stearn, Sarah Rose, Mona Yoo (all Talbot Rice Gallery/Edinburgh)
Freelands is headed up by Elisabeth Murdoch, scroll around the site for shouts out to her and her dad.
@g39, Cardiff, as part of
No Time To Plan An Ending
Becca+Clare, Freya Dooley, Rebecca Gould
Rhiannon Lowe, Will Roberts, Neasa Terry
16 October - 18 December 2021
Work in this show was a continuation of work developed for my solo show at Mission Gallery earlier this year. This project, Cekca Het: Trans Panic is me, me then and now. It’s a mess of noise and memory, hope and fear; it’s a paene to the long lost and a statement of intent; it’s an exploration of secrecy and a lived life; it’s a search for a safe place within the hard wild reality of being trans.
The following is a text edit from Trans Panic magazine, produced as part of the exhibition at Mission Gallery, Swansea in 2021.
I'm caught between different states, officially: born and created in one, with time, experience, life, loves, people, messages, communications, paperwork to match (in the eyes of others); and living in another, one that I have been dreaming of, manufacturing and living for as many years as I can remember, to (re)make myself anew. I now have yet more proofs of who I am and will be; proofs on paper and trails online, proofs in stone, written, drawn, recorded; official statements in full. I have the beginnings of another whole lived life. This is another new year. I'm about 11 in new years; I am coming to that time when in my earlier life I like to think I made myself; me, my heart, my fears, my wants and desires, my places and loves, my confusions. It was the '80s; I was sneaking Smash Hits and Melody Maker under the covers, figuring the closest I'd get to being a woman was Martin L Gore, ffs.
The work was been made during 2020/21, while based at g39, Cardiff on a Freelands Foundation fellowship, and developed from work supported by a grant from Arts Council Wales. For a look around my studio, click here. This virtual studio tour was commissioned by Freelands Foundation and scanned and produced by The Net Gallery.
Aggregate 2022, Freelands Foundation, London
"Man, I can’t tell you how relieved I was when you took off your dress, you didn’t have a dick", 2021/22
10 March - 29 May 2022
This is what Clarence says to Alabama in True Romance, as they sit high up, in front of the huge JMC truck billboard. Clarence’s post-sex relief is obvious; less so to most is the passing slap in the face of anyone watching who just might be trans or non-binary. Aw the early ‘90s. I still love and still hate that film. Some things in the world have changed; a great deal hasn’t. This is a collection of reworked pieces, objects and ephemera from Cekca Het: Trans Panic, my recent exhibitions and performances based around a never-to-make-it noise band project. Cekca Het: Trans Panic celebrates and explores my identity pre-, during and post transition, through a mix of text, installation, moving image, sound, costume and performance. The work collapses my past and present, seeks domestic escape from medical horrors and social fears, considers my wriggles for position within trans spaces and art communities, and takes swipes at transphobic individuals and media.
The work was at Freelands Foundation gallery space, as part of their Artist Programme cohort 2 fellowship programme show. Other artists in the exhibition included: Freya Dooley, Rebecca Gould, Becca+Clare, Will Roberts, Neasa Terry (all g39/Cardiff); Jasmin Marker, Brown+Bri, Thomas Wells, Mitch Conlon, Jane Butler (all PS2/Belfast); James Clarkson, Maud Haya-Baviera, Victoria Lucas, Conor Rogers, Joanna Whittle (all Site Gallery/Sheffield); Rae-Yen Song, Jenny Hogarth, Eothen Stearn, Sarah Rose, Mona Yoo (all Talbot Rice Gallery/Edinburgh)
Freelands is headed up by Elisabeth Murdoch, scroll around the site for shouts out to her and her dad.
@g39, Cardiff, as part of
No Time To Plan An Ending
Becca+Clare, Freya Dooley, Rebecca Gould
Rhiannon Lowe, Will Roberts, Neasa Terry
16 October - 18 December 2021
Work in this show was a continuation of work developed for my solo show at Mission Gallery earlier this year. This project, Cekca Het: Trans Panic is me, me then and now. It’s a mess of noise and memory, hope and fear; it’s a paene to the long lost and a statement of intent; it’s an exploration of secrecy and a lived life; it’s a search for a safe place within the hard wild reality of being trans.
The following is a text edit from Trans Panic magazine, produced as part of the exhibition at Mission Gallery, Swansea in 2021.
I'm caught between different states, officially: born and created in one, with time, experience, life, loves, people, messages, communications, paperwork to match (in the eyes of others); and living in another, one that I have been dreaming of, manufacturing and living for as many years as I can remember, to (re)make myself anew. I now have yet more proofs of who I am and will be; proofs on paper and trails online, proofs in stone, written, drawn, recorded; official statements in full. I have the beginnings of another whole lived life. This is another new year. I'm about 11 in new years; I am coming to that time when in my earlier life I like to think I made myself; me, my heart, my fears, my wants and desires, my places and loves, my confusions. It was the '80s; I was sneaking Smash Hits and Melody Maker under the covers, figuring the closest I'd get to being a woman was Martin L Gore, ffs.
The work was been made during 2020/21, while based at g39, Cardiff on a Freelands Foundation fellowship, and developed from work supported by a grant from Arts Council Wales. For a look around my studio, click here. This virtual studio tour was commissioned by Freelands Foundation and scanned and produced by The Net Gallery.
Images above:
various install photos from shows at g39 - by Ric Bower
billboard images, Cekca Het/Rhiannon Lowe, 2021, using photograph by Liam O’Conner, wearing costume by Abi Hubbard (original image as backdrop in photo, billboard at Mission Gallery, 2021, photography: Megan Winstone; styling: Charlotte Wilcock, mua: Amy Jenkins; mua Ist assistant: Jackson Freeman)
...and at Freelands Foundation - by Rhiannon Lowe/Damian Griffiths
(shout out to Trans Creative for the tshirt)
Photos of performance at Freelands Foundation, taken by Jules Lister.
Cekca Het is Rhiannon Lowe, and the product of Rhiannon Lowe
WIP, as is she.
This site can be noisy
so turn on the noise,
if you like.
There’s other stuff at
rhiannonlowe.co.uk
and at
axisweb.org
Images and fun are at
︎
Cekca Het is currently based at SHIFT, Cardiff. In 2020/21 Cekca Het was awarded a small grant through Arts Council Wales, when much of this project was first started.
Buy artwork, noise and merch at
cekcahet.bandcamp.com/merch
Image: pre, during, post performance, installation shots at Freelands Foundation, London
Photos: Rhiannon Lowe, Tom Cardew
WIP, as is she.
This site can be noisy
so turn on the noise,
if you like.
There’s other stuff at
rhiannonlowe.co.uk
and at
axisweb.org
Images and fun are at
︎
Cekca Het is currently based at SHIFT, Cardiff. In 2020/21 Cekca Het was awarded a small grant through Arts Council Wales, when much of this project was first started.
Buy artwork, noise and merch at
cekcahet.bandcamp.com/merch
Image: pre, during, post performance, installation shots at Freelands Foundation, London
Photos: Rhiannon Lowe, Tom Cardew
Installation shots of Cekca Het: Trans Panic at Mission Gallery, Swansea, 2021
Photos: Rhiannon Lowe
For a video zoom around the show, see here on Vimeo
Photos: Rhiannon Lowe
For a video zoom around the show, see here on Vimeo
An early version of a film made for Careful Networks project, initiated by Phoenix Gallery, Leicester, with thanks to Peter Bonnell of QUAD for the nomination. Visit the link to see all the works including the final version of the film.