I Am Other (Candy & Me)
2007—2008
HD video 11 mins, colour/sound, c-print, photogram. Made in collaboration with Andy Candy.
I Am Other (Candy & Me) is a paraphrase of the American artist Peter Hujar’s (1934—1987) iconic photograph Candy Darling on Her Death Bed from 1974. Conny Karlsson Lundgren’s and Andy Candy’s collaborative work, which is also based on the actress Candy Darling’s (1944—1974) diaries and Andy Candy’s own medical records, addresses the need to resist normative expectations of family and society.
The video shows Andy Candy—just like Candy Darling in Hujar’s photograph—looking into the camera from a hospital bed, surrounded by roses and peonies. From a voice over she reads a statement about the labelling of trans people, underlining the limitations of identities, roles and names prescribed by society. “I refuse to be that lonely scared, vulnerable and tragic trans person. I refuse to be a victim,” she says, referring to the photograph. She admits, however, that sometimes there is no other choice than playing those roles and to be able to reject an image we need to acknowledge that it exists.
The work navigates the complexity by centering Andy Candy’s subjective experiences inside Hujar’s portrayal of Candy Darling. In this way, the work extends across time and urges trans people to political liberation through the power of naming while claiming difference as a source of strength.