“I have always been consistent in my insanity”: Vaginal Davis is a countercultural treasure
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by MoMA PS1 (courtesy of)
Magnificent Product — An expansive retrospective diving into the work of the artist, Blacktress and trailblazer in modern queercore is showing at the MoMA PS1. We took a look inside.
If video killed the radio star in 1981, it also inspired a new wave of artists to seize the means of production for themselves. The DIY ethos of punk shattered siloed minds of the establishment, ushering in the multidisciplinary artist long before it was in vogue. For self-described ‘Blacktress’ and bon vivant Vaginal Davis, it has always been a matter of being true to herself.
It’s rare to call an exhibition and catalogue a ‘kiki’, but not everyone can be Vaginal Davis: Magnificent Product. Now on view at MoMA PS1, the presentation is a garden of delights from the godmother of queercore, tracing her trailblazing work as performer, visual artist, author, filmmaker, musician, educator, and countercultural icon over the past five decades.
At 56, Davis is a living treasure and LGBTQ+ community elder who paved her own path with glamour, charm, and savoir faire. “Vaginal Davis is known to state her medium as ‘the indefinite nature of [her] own whimsy,’ and this is evident across Magnificent Product. The works seduce viewers with humour, intrigue, and her clever material misuse, rather than didactically address them,” says Sheldon Gooch, who co-curated the MoMA PS1 exhibition with Jody Graf.
Born Gadance Genna Gadee, she renamed herself in honour of Angela Davis in the late ’70s, having been inspired by her radical anti-racist and anti-capitalist activism. Hailing from Los Angeles, she was born intersex. Her mother, Mary Magdalene, a French Creole mother of five who became a femme lesbian separatist, refused to let doctors operate, giving Davis the freedom to be both. She invented her first persona, “Carolyn Langendorf, child actress” at the age of seven. “For a time, my family believed that Carolyn was a real person since I received letters regularly from her and I had pen pals from all over the world as I kept correspondence with other children in faraway lands. I saw myself early on as an internationalist,” Davis wrote in the catalogue.
“I have always been consistent in my insanity,” she continued. “Why did I feel a need to keep up this ruse from the age of seven until I was about 13?” Davis realises her predilection for personas was a trauma response to a doctor’s inappropriate examination of her genitals as a child. Her mother went on the attack against the perpetrator, while Davis channelled the chaos into stories she could construct and control as Chrome Chastain, Steele Carrera, Loreal DeHaven, Elmer Occasion, Kayle Hilliard, and Gleeson Brevard, to name just a few.
But Davis’s creativity could not be contained. It leaped on the stage, unfurling with glorious aplomb in a series of art bands including Black Fag, Cholita! The Female Menudo, the Afro Sisters, and Pedro Muriel and Ester (PME). A master of working with what you’ve got, Davis created the world famous Fertile LaToyah Jackson Magazine on a Xerox machine at her day job, ran HAG Gallery out of her Hollywood apartment, and made no-budget films like The White to Be Angry (1999), all of which have redefined the medium.
Queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz famously coined the term “terrorist drag” to describe Davis’s work, explaining, “Terrorist, insofar as she is performing the nation’s internal terrors around race, gender, and sexuality.” But rather than be dogmatic or didactic, Davis used whimsy and wit, reminding us that play, pleasure, and fun are essential tools of liberation.
Vaginal Davis: Magnificent Product is on view through March 2, 2026 at MoMA PS1. The catalogue is published by Walther König.
Miss Rosen is a freelance arts and photography writer, follow her on X.
Buy your copy of Huck 82 here.
Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram and sign up to our newsletter for more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.
Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.
You might like
Celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Angela Davis
Freed by the people — A new exhibition uncovers the political activist’s photographs, speeches and letters, tracking the experiences that helped make her the woman she is today.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Louis Theroux’s ‘Manosphere’ shows men aren’t the problem, platforms are
No Ws for Good Men — The journalist’s new documentary sees him dive headfirst into the toxicities and machinations of the male influencer economy. But when young creators are monetarily incentivised to make more and more outrageous content, who really is to blame?
Written by: Emma Garland
In the 1960s, African photographers recaptured their own image
Ideas of Africa — An exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art explores the 20th century’s most important lensers, including Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé and Kwame Brathwaite, and their impact on challenging dominant European narratives.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Reynaldo Rivera’s intimate portrait of queer Latino love
Propiedad Privada — Growing up during the AIDS pandemic, the photographer entered a world where his love was not only taboo, but dangerous. His new monograph presents inward-looking shots made over four decades, which reclaim the power of desire.
Written by: Miss Rosen
In photos: The newsagents keeping print alive
Save the stands — With Huck 83 hitting shelves around the world, we met a few people who continue to stock print magazines, defying an enduringly tough climate for physical media and the high street.
Written by: Ella Glossop
Inside Bombay Beach, California’s ‘Rotting Riviera’
Man-made decay — The Salton Sea was created by accident after a failed attempt to divert the Colorado River in the early 20th century. Jack Burke reports from its post-apocalyptic shores, where DIY art and ecological collapse meet.
Written by: Jack Burke
