The Archival Pages from the 1998 Vancouver launch:

G.I.D.

Gender Identity Disorder or...

SPRING, 2001: San Francisco, CA: You are Cordially Invited to... Artist's Talk by S.D Holman - Artist, Actor, Photographer

Note: This show enjoyed a very successful run, and a great deal of television and magazine coverage, and is now over - in this Vancouver location. If you are interested in hosting this show or purchasing any of the pieces, send email to shaira@vcn.bc.ca or call 604-408-0118. Thanks!

Essay on GID by Persimmon Blackbridge

Welcome to the page about Shaira Holman's show;

Click on the images below to see a larger, better resolution copy.

You are cordially invited to the opening of: GID
Gender Identity Disorder or... Girls In Drag
An installation of silver emulsion prints. Shaira Holman 8 pm, Friday, October 30, 1998 at the Helen Pitt International Gallery. Exhibition will run from October 30 - December 3, 1998. Helen Pitt International Gallery
882 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 2W5
604-681-6740
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 - 5:00

Artist's Statement A few words about this work: hysteric personal iconoclastic passionate whimsical nonconformist heretic maverick immoderate dissident butch radical pervert tactile introspective challenging transcendent transformative G.I.D. refers to Gender Identity Disorder, a term from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to describe young women who "fail to identify as a sexual female" Girls in Drag is a subversion. Drag is more than a matter of taste and sensibility. It is a political criticism of homophobia, and a parody. The subject is a many-layered thing.
-- Shaira Holman, 1998

Media Release October 30 - December 3, 1998 GID: Gender Identity Disorder or... Girls In Drag
by S.D. Holman of Vancouver Helen Pitt International Gallery
882 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2W5
604-681-6740 Women do drag as a parody, for fun, for survival, to feel normal, for a performance, as a critique of heterosexism; the list is endless.... The common thread is a refusal to accept society's definition of female.
S.D. Holman's installation is a series of portraits in liquid emulsion on watercolour paper with the use of layering and text, combining to form the artist's most in-depth and dynamic exploration to date.
GID is Holman's first solo photographic installation, whose artistic background includes performance, photography, mixed media, video production, art-activism (Vancouver Association for Non-Commercial Culture), and collective collaborations; from Artropolis to Television. The artist is available for interviews. Contact:
604-408-0118
shaira@vcn.bc.ca "Formally arresting" -Kinesis
"Very sensitive" -Xtra West

Artist's Bio -- Shaira Holman Shaira has a wide range of interests and talents and makes her living both as a photographer and an actor. Graduating from ECCAD in 1991, Shaira was immediately picked up by pioneering public art group The Vancouver Association for Non-Commercial Culture. She has been involved with The Non doing arts-activism, collective collaboration, and video-making. Her photographic works have been in Artopolis, The Roundhouse, Charles H. Scott, Exposure and Fotobase galleries. Shaira can be seen on Vancouver's own Madison television series, where she is a regular. She has performed at The Firehall, The Presentation House, Vancouver East Cultural Centre and at the Fringe and Women in View Festivals. This is Shaira's first solo photographic installation, and when she's not working on that, she is producing a sitcom.