Evisu Ball, Manhattan, NY, 2010: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A color photographic print of an unidentified participant waiting backstage at the Evisu Ball in Manhattan in 2010. The participating is pictured just to the right of center frame, standing next to a wall. She wears a black-and-white ensemble of houndstooth print fabric, with exaggerated puff sleeves and standing collar. The garment is cinched at the waist and chest with a black satin corset. Beneath the corset is a short, flared skirt ending in black ostrich feathers. She wears elbow-length black patent leather gloves and a houndstooth pillbox hat topped with a towering structure of black and white birds. Her face is painted white with black squares, and black feathers at the eyebrows, forehead, and jawline. Her proper left hand rests on the wall and her right hand rests on her right hip. Behind her and to the left of the image is a hallway crowded with people wearing street clothes passing in both directions through an open doorway.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2010
• Photograph by: Gerard H. Gaskin, Trinidadian American, born 1965
• Subject of: Unidentified
• Printed by: Light Work, American, founded 1973
• Type: portraits
• Type: inkjet prints
• Medium: ink on Canson Baryta photographique paper
• Dimensions: H x W (Sheet) : 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (Image) : 12 5/8 × 19 in. (32.1 × 48.3 cm)
• Place captured: Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Dance
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Gender
• Topic: Identity
• Topic: LGBTQ
• Topic: Music
• Object number: 2019.71.17
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Gerard Gaskin Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.