John Kelly

John Kelly is a remarkable performer and this book about his art is something of a work of art. Its cover portrait artfully blinks between male and female and the pages contain evocative and vivid accounts of most of his significant performances, in which he says little but shows, sings and acts a lot. Not all of his personations are female but amongst those that are you’ll find Joni Mitchell, Jacqueline Kennedy. Mona Lisa and Barbette. This is art-drag of a very sophisticated kind born out of the US art-performance scene of the last two decades of the 20th Century, and for those of us who perform it is inspirational. John is exceptionally photogenic so the images in this book are often sensational. “inspirational”, “exceptional”. “sensational” – do you sense hyperbole here? I have actually never seen him perform and I still think he’s great – does that persuade you? This book was published in 2001 but he’s still going strong. His work plumbs the depths of personal transformation and so has relevance to us all.