Since March , artist and archivist Rachel Rampleman has been creating the largest archive of digital drag performances in the United States and quite possibly the world. A drag historian myself, we learned quickly just how much we have in common, most notably our shared passion for preserving the legacy of drag artists, especially in a time when the queer community faces new challenges from the incoming presidential administration.
I spoke to Rampleman about Life is Drag , building a drag archive, the totality of the drag art experience, and more. Rachel: I trace it back to grad school at New York University.
I felt a lot of pressure and stress doing it at a place like NYU. I was lost in making all kinds of work, mostly print work and recontextualized appropriated work. For my thesis, I eventually landed on doing a linear narrative, documentary-style video about my younger sister, Sarah, and her obsession and then brief relationship with Bret Michaels from [the band] Poison.
I was a nerd, a late bloomer; she developed more quickly than I did, even though she was four years younger. I thought more about my adolescence—I dated a lot of musicians and hair metal guys. I remember being confused that these men were so misogynistic, but they dressed up the way women did, but then they treated women like shit.
I was confused about that performance of gender and the complete spectacle of a Poison show. The most interesting thing for me to explore was people not playing by the rules. Then I ended up working with professional female bodybuilders.
