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Casey Legler. Photo \u00a9 Paul Mpagi Sepuya<\/p>\n Casey Legler. Photo \u00a9 Paul Mpagi Sepuya<\/p>\n
Casey Legler is a model whose beauty can inspire long-term change, not only spark superficial\u00a0trends. For the 35-year-old French former Olympic swimmer, modelling is an artistic medium. Whereas most models are tools for others\u2019 creative expression or muses who inspire artistry, Legler uses fashion as a forum to advance her avant-garde deconstruction of gender norms and boundaries. After studying architecture, being offered a scholarship to law school and beginning\u00a0medical school, Legler is currently devoting her keen mind and striking physicality to video art\u00a0and performance. As the first female model signed to Ford\u2019s male agency, Legler joins Andre Pejic as an exemplar of a future where gender is fluid. She poses in womenswear and menswear and in her own challenging art, which she produces under the moniker Edward Merton Casey. Here, we discuss art, fashions for gender-bending and bending gender in fashion.<\/p>\n
Sleek: At shows and shoots, what have you observed about how male models relate to their beauty and their status as embodiments of some beauty ideal?<\/strong> Casey Legler: At my first go-sees I noticed that the first thing the boys did when called up was take\u00a0their shirts off. While it\u2019s unclear to me whether this was expected of them or not, they all\u00a0 unequivocally did. In this setting I experienced surprising privilege as a result of \u201cobjectification\u201d being re-posited solely onto men \u2013 I was never asked to take off my shirt, nor did I ever get the sense that it was expected of me. It seemed here that the rhetoric of objectification as it is most commonly applied to women, was in this case only applied to men \u2013 I am curious about this and\u00a0wonder whether it has similar repercussions as female objectification \u2013 it might; and did I experience \u201cmale privilege\u201d in this experience? I don\u2019t know; is that even possible?<\/p>\n How does being older than most models help you relate to the process, pressures and experience of modelling?<\/strong> I think what informs my process and experience as a model, more than anything else, is the discipline and rigour that is the framework to my art practice, and this since I was young. Modelling and its ensuing conversations are a part of my larger body of work that I posit in terms of \u201csocial sculpture\u201d, and when I am thus engaged collaboratively and publicly \u2013 as is most often the case when I am modelling \u2013 I bring to it and ask of my\u00a0 collaborators, the same focus, intellectual inquiry and discipline I bring to my non-collaborative projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why do you use yourself as an element in your art? How does self-portraiture enrich your conceptual intentions as an artist?<\/strong> The closest I\u2019ve gotten to a self-portrait may be the 9\u2019 x 5\u2019 reclining nude all made of glitter which I\u2019ve come to call \u201cchimera\u201d. I created her for a commissioned, creative non-fiction video piece I recently\u00a0completed for ACON in Australia. I wouldn\u2019t qualify any of my other works as self-portraits, despite the presence of my body, and am not sure self-portraiture is conceptually interesting to me at the moment.<\/p>\n What inspired your masculine and feminine mannerisms in your film \u201cGenesis?\u201d<\/strong> In the King James version of The Bible, Genesis 1:27 states the notion that, before Adam, there existed this singular being who was created \u201cin the image of God\u201d and who \u201cboth female and male created he them.\u201d \u201cGenesis\u201d riffs off of this notion of a singular being. Its a love story actually. I think that as queers there is this desire to find our history, right? It\u2019s not like we appeared out of a vacuum within the past 10 years\u2026 we\u2019ve been around a really, really long time (it\u2019s amazing\u00a0we\u2019re alive actually and survived long enough to share ourselves, our minds and our ways in the world as we can now \u2013 I like to think of us as a pretty magical bunch that, when not persecuted\u00a0to death, actually have some pretty rad stuff to show). I can\u2019t speak for my whole family and tribe, but for me, the idea is that I share what I know with you, and you take what moves and inspires you, and you leave the rest \u2013 no harm, no foul \u2013 the fact that I do get to share is a privilege that I am extraordinarily grateful for. So I guess this is an ode to my history in a way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In terms of fashion and your signing with Ford, do you see this as a progressive statement by the\u00a0industry or a trend within fashion\u2019s natural cycle?<\/strong> This is also an interesting question in terms of its attempt to contextualise my work. Rather than remaining within the discursive limits of fashion and trend, I\u2019d posit my work within the ideas of black-feminism, of \u201cintersectionality\u201d and my ideas of queer privilege, the \u201ccelebration of difference\u201d as a component of \u201csocial justice\u201d, and these notions\u2019 manifestations in and relationship to the hegemony. This is what I\u2019m interested in, this is my work, this is what I do \u2013 the fact that some of the visual and conversational components to this have landed in fashion is actually radical and also beautifully accidental but not occurring within a vacuum \u2013 the larger cultural context supports a broader interpretation of the work. I think, if anything, fashion is being extraordinarily brave in taking me under her wing and offering a platform for my work and what I think are important conversations; I am honoured to be her guest \u2013 the truth is, I\u2019m more in the business of ideas and it\u2019s a privilege to have one\u2019s ideas thought of as worth sticking up for.<\/p>\n Why do you think Russia is persecuting people who aren\u2019t heterosexual or heteronormative now?<\/strong> I think a quote attributed to Morgan Freeman may best answer this question: \u201cI hate the word\u00a0 homophobia. It\u2019s not a phobia. You are not scared. You are an asshole.\u201d I am sure I would have a more diplomatic answer to this on another day but today, it actually just breaks my heart. I actually think that their institutional heterosexist policies \u2013 Russia is not alone in having them overtly or covertly by the way \u2013 may have a lot to do with fear and that fear may be a fear of difference. I would suggest that this fear of difference is problematic and that her history shows us that, unchecked, she can be devastating to entire peoples and diasporas.<\/p>\n How did being an athlete effect your sense of beauty, your body and your body\u2019s visual effects on\u00a0other people?\u00a0<\/strong> More than anything, for me, being an athlete affected my sense of purpose. What I mean is this: I was absolutely, 100 per cent, an accidental athlete. All I wanted to do was wear a long pink tutu and read my books, go to school and write papers, shave my head and paint my nails, paint and draw, and also be in the marines and also be a cancan dancer \u2013 I was a perfectly queer kid with zero vocabulary for what I was. After an accidental foray in a pool at the age of 10, I ended up at the Olympics at 18. What was the most complicated about this was the disconnect between what I wanted to do and what I was actually doing (and didn\u2019t want to be, but was excellent at). So, less having informed any sense of my body and beauty, and another\u2019s understanding\u00a0 of my body, my having been an athlete, at retirement, had everything to do with sorting out my sense of self. In many ways, what has happened within the past year has been the result of me finally getting enough courage (totally gifted to me by circumstance than by any virtue of mine) and saying: \u201cokay guys, to mine own self be true: I\u2019m going to say \u2018yes\u2019, share this stuff I\u2019ve been doing, and show you this thing I know how to do, and talk to you about this stuff I understand, and if you want to listen\u2026”\u00a0<\/p>\n So I guess in some way, the greatest effect swimming has had on me has been a lovely gift: knowing the experience of not being able to stick up for oneself and one\u2019s heart. Finally doing that, I think, is pretty cool and maybe something that most people can get with. That\u2019s actually what I\u2019m doing here, showing you this thing that might be about the heart and courage, maybe, and also maybe about celebrating difference and also maybe about being your most excellent\u00a0self, maybe\u2026 and how that might actually be really rad. It just so happens that for me, the best vehicles for that conversation look like modelling and theory and fashion and art.<\/p>\n Entnommen aus Sleek 40 “Man\/Boy”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1770570-767x1024.jpg\")
Casey Legler. Photo \u00a9 Paul Mpagi Sepuya<\/p>\n