Machine Dazzle, to my mind, [is] a true theatrical genius who has created some of the most inventive costumes and sets I have ever seen. Hilton Als Machine Dazzle is the much in-demand designer and artist behind popular cabaret, drag, and performance stars such as Taylor Mac and transgender icon Mx. Justin Vivian Bond.For the first time, his over-the-top stage creations, made for himself and others, are collected in one volume alongside stage environments, ephemera, and photos from his fascinating career. In Machine Dazzle s world, costumes are transformative objects with world-making capacity. The artist s queer maximalism encapsulates a more is better attitude to making and creating which looks to counter elitist notions that spectacle and extravagance are vapid.For him these associations are embraced as queer for their affirmation of hybridity over purity and the rejection of hierarchies of every kind, cultural and otherwise. On the occasion of a major exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design, curator Elissa Auther brings together a rich collections of essays and reminiscences from fellow performers, historians and cultural critics that consider every aspect of Machine Dazzle s rich body of work.
