Del LaGagrace Volcano

As a gender variant visual artist I access 'technologies of gender' in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body. I name myself. A gender abolitionist. A part time gender terrorist. An intentional mutation and intersex by design, (as opposed to diagnosis), in order to distinguish my journey from the thousands of intersex individuals who have had their 'ambiguous' bodies mutilated and disfigured in a misguided attempt at 'normalization'. I believe in crossing the line as many times as it takes to build a bridge we can all walk across. I am a gender variant visual artist and cultural producer working with the body (my own and those bodies in close orbit) as primary source material for my work. I have accessed technologies of gender in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body. Therefore I name myself an "intentionalmutation" and "intersex by design", as a way of distinguishing my journey from those who had choices taken away from them by the medical establishment who sought to normalize their intersex bodies as well as to stake out territory beyond the confines of a binary gender system that harms us all.A Gender Terrorist is anyone who consistently and intentionally subverts,destablizes and challenges the binary gender system. This is the notion thatonly two genders exist, male and female. The fact is, while this system mightwork for some people it doesn't work for all. Too many people are harmed bothphysically and mentally, in the attempt to force themselves into a shoe thatdoesn't fit.

Del LaGrace Volcano, September 2005