Original image: Peter Hujar, 1983
Greer Lankton | Queer artist, doll maker, trailblazer
A talented artist with a troubled soul, Greer Lankton faced many challenges throughout her life, and her artwork provided her with comfort amidst the chaos. However, some critics believed she relied too heavily on her artwork leading to an obsession, burnout and her eventual undoing.
As a child, Greer was drawn to feminine clothing and playing with dolls. As she was AMAB her family wouldn’t allow her to play with ‘feminine’ toys as they disapproved of her breaking the gender binary, so she often made her own dolls out of socks and pipe cleaners to keep her company and give her an outlet to explore gender expression. Even though her self-expression was dimmed by her parents, her early artistic ambitions were supported by them. She entered and won many shows and competitions all over the Midwest, before moving to New York in 1978 in her early 20s to study at the Pratt Institute.
Greer became engrossed in the process of creating dolls. She composed them out of soda cans, wire, tape, paper, plaster, stockings and finished them with realistic glass eyes. One was described by Nan Goldin, one of Greers contemporaries and friends, as "A huge cloth hermaphrodite giving birth", this was said to have been made after a dream in which Greer gave birth to herself. Her work mainly focused on sexuality, gender and the effects of consumerism, with Goldin suggesting that “In bringing her dolls to life, Greer worked through her own traumas with her dolls”.
Lankton battled with an eating disorder for many years, and her unhealthy relationship with food was expressed within her dolls. Many were seen with flared ribs, emaciated, while others were unhealthily overweight. The creation of her art was intertwined with her own life and complicated relationship with body image. Hilton Als, an American writer and Theater critic, wrote how ‘’No artist is down on her luck when she has her art. It’s what Greer fed on, even when she ate no other food at all. Her dolls were starved for our attention.”. Greer also struggled with continuous substance abuse when she relocated to New York, which also had influence on many of her doll’s looks. They were a reflection of her own addictions, traumas and struggles with her gender identity.
Like herself, Greer’s dolls were constantly being reworked – she had an approach that the human body was in a constant state of metamorphosis, influencing her into obtaining a habit of changing the doll’s size, gender, and clothes frequently. In some way, she was her very own doll surrounding herself with a family of ‘freaks’. Greer derived much of her inspiration from celebrities as well, creating them in glamorous and sometimes haunting lights. Some examples would include; Candy Darling and Divine.
Greer underwent gender-affirming surgery aged 20 in 1979. At this time the surgery was riskier and more experimental than today. Her husband, Paul Monroe says she suffered from pain and complications from the surgery until her death.
Greer and Paul were married in 1987 and are said to have divorced in 1992 although Paul himself states they never really divorced. In the early 90’s while dealing with the loss of many of her friends through the aids pandemic she moved back to Chicago to focus on her own ill health. Her career began to dwindle from the art world until, in 1995, she got given an opportunity to put on an exhibition for the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh.
Margery King, the curator of The Mattress Factory and Michael Olijnyk, went to visit Greer about the exhibition, arriving in Greer’s small apartment which was overflowing with her dolls in all stages of production. Her home was such an incredible display of her talent, Michael and Margery both agreed that Greer could reproduce an installation inspired by her apartment for the exhibition.
Many agree that those last moments of Greer bringing to life her installation, ‘It's all about ME not you’, were some of her happiest in a while. She was surrounded by admirers and completely engrossed in her work. Though down to 90 pounds, she always wore a smile, and her work ethic was beyond extraordinary. She sadly passed not even a month after the exhibition had been unveiled to the public by accidental overdose.
Greer’s passion for her art allowed her to have a creative outlet for her pain and suffering during her struggles with substance abuse, addiction and a severe mental health disorder. Greer’s friend and photographer Nan Goldin described Greer’s work as “so visceral, so exposed, that I once told her it was like an operation without anesthesia.”
Critics may have said her obsession with her art bought about her eventual undoing, but according to those closest to her it seems like she used her creative outlet as a form of therapy. Greer granted other queer and trans individuals the opportunity to be seen; something so valuable during her lifetime and today.
Sources
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https://www.artforum.com/features/greer-lankton-162842/ By Nan Goldin
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