Transgendered playwright, performer, columnist, and sex worker Nina Arsenault has undergone more than sixty plastic surgeries in pursuit of a feminine beauty ideal. In TRANS(per)FORMING Nina Arsenault, Judith Rudakoff brings together a diverse group of contributors, including artists, scholars, and Arsenault herself to offer an exploration of beauty, image, and the notion of queerness through the lens of Arsenault’s highly personal brand of performance art.
Illustrated throughout with photographs of the artist’s transformation over the years and demonstrating her diversity of personae, this volume contributes to a deepening of our understanding of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be beautiful. Also included in this volume is the full script of Arsenault’s critically acclaimed stage play, The Silicone Diaries.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Judith Rudakoff
Part I: The Texts
1. Affirming Identity with Your Friendly Neighbourhood Cyborg
Sky Gilbert
2. Unreal Beauty: Identification and Embodiment in Nina Arsenault’s “Self-Portraits”
J. Paul Halferty
3. Daughter of the Air: Three Acting Sessions and Nina Arsenault’s Imaginary Body
Cynthia Ashperger
4. Nina, Amber and the Evolution of a Commodified Sexual Being
Todd Klinck
5. Sexed Life is a Cabaret: The Body Politics of Nina Arsenault’s The Silicone Diaries
Frances J. Latchford
6. Chopping at the Sexy Bits: [Trans]cending the Body with Surgical Conundrums
J Mase III
7. Nina Arsenault: Fast Feminist Objet a
Shannon Bell
8. The Artist as Complication: Nina Arsenault and the Morality of Beauty
Alistair Newton
9. Landscape with Yukon and Unnatural Beauty
Nina Arsenault
10. Performing the Prosthetics of Femininity: Nina Arsenault’s Transsexual Body as a Living Art Object
Benjamin Gillespie
11. Compelling Honesty: Searching for Authenticity in the Voice of Nina Arsenault
Eric Armstrong
12. Live in Your Blood: A Fragmentary Response to Nina Arsenault’s Holy Theatre and Spiritual Gift
Shimon Levy
13. St. Nina and the Abstract Machine: Aesthetics, Ontology, Immanence
David Fancy
Part II: The Silicone Diaries
Director’s Note
Brendan Healy
The Silicone Diaries
Nina Arsenault
Part III: The Photographs
Image Credits
Introduction
Judith Rudakoff
Part I: The Texts
1. Affirming Identity with Your Friendly Neighbourhood Cyborg
Sky Gilbert
2. Unreal Beauty: Identification and Embodiment in Nina Arsenault’s “Self-Portraits”
J. Paul Halferty
3. Daughter of the Air: Three Acting Sessions and Nina Arsenault’s Imaginary Body
Cynthia Ashperger
4. Nina, Amber and the Evolution of a Commodified Sexual Being
Todd Klinck
5. Sexed Life is a Cabaret: The Body Politics of Nina Arsenault’s The Silicone Diaries
Frances J. Latchford
6. Chopping at the Sexy Bits: [Trans]cending the Body with Surgical Conundrums
J Mase III
7. Nina Arsenault: Fast Feminist Objet a
Shannon Bell
8. The Artist as Complication: Nina Arsenault and the Morality of Beauty
Alistair Newton
9. Landscape with Yukon and Unnatural Beauty
Nina Arsenault
10. Performing the Prosthetics of Femininity: Nina Arsenault’s Transsexual Body as a Living Art Object
Benjamin Gillespie
11. Compelling Honesty: Searching for Authenticity in the Voice of Nina Arsenault
Eric Armstrong
12. Live in Your Blood: A Fragmentary Response to Nina Arsenault’s Holy Theatre and Spiritual Gift
Shimon Levy
13. St. Nina and the Abstract Machine: Aesthetics, Ontology, Immanence
David Fancy
Part II: The Silicone Diaries
Director’s Note
Brendan Healy
The Silicone Diaries
Nina Arsenault
Part III: The Photographs
Image Credits