Facing the Queer and Gothic: Casper Tracey, Fine Art

A body is draped in a white coat in a dark corner of DJCAD, splayed on the ground. Another figure lies on a bed with an almost restive posture. Flickering behind them is a film explaining the incident.

The Jute Journal has returned to the annual DJCAD Degree Show, which includes a film and installation by Casper Tracey, a 4th Year Fine Art student. They are a multimedia artist who presents a personal perspective to Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein.

Their main work is a seven-minute black-and-white silent film simply named ‘The Body‘. The artist calls it a ‘trans retelling’ of Gothic literature that already have ‘queer undertones’.

Here, the classic Frankenstein tale, of a scientist creating life, is switched to a scientist accidentally transferring their soul into the ‘Body’. The story is trying to address the question:

‘If you woke up in a body which didn’t feel right for you as a person, what would you do?

“Would you just try to put how you feel aside and try to live in this body, or would you adapt, make this body fit who you are so you can live comfortably?‘

The Body is initially put together with the silent focus of the scientist, with animated scribbles in the film connecting the live footage and body parts assembled and filmed by the artist.

Scenes are punctuated by a simple, staccato score. The music dares the viewer to sit in the black chairs in front of the pale statues and ignore them; to instead focus on the starkly lit film projection.

Tracey tells TJJ that the film’s performance was inspired by German expressionist cinema, using dramatic lighting and bodily expressions to reflect inner conflict. Through body horror, the form of the film lends itself to exploring body dysmorphia and transitioning, which are key to the trans experience—it is ‘gender transition, not mutilation‘, and, like the scientist, it is natural for people to want to be their ‘own god’ over their ‘own body’.

The film is ultimately about acceptance of reality, with the ‘Doctor’ coming to accept that they are in this ‘Body’.

We discussed the artwork’s place in relation to today’s world. It is relevant not only to the current political climate around bodily autonomy but also a resurgence of the Gothic in popular culture, with recent film releases such as Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!

Indeed, while new retellings of the Gothic may emphasise its sci-fi and romantic elements, Casper Tracey’s works at the DJCAD bring forth the horror. They show that horror, too, has a natural place in contemplating the personal, just as queer identities and expressions have a natural place in the fabric of our world.

You can see more of Casper Tracey’s work via @ghostlycasp.art on Instagram.