Rose Wood is an American transgender performance artist popularly referred to as the “Gender Terrorist” and “The Queen of Filth.” She is notoriously known for her extreme physical acts intentionally created to strike an emotional nerve with audiences. Wood’s work addresses subjects such as variant gender identities, human vulnerability & failings, disempowered individuals and exposing intimate human struggles that though usually hidden remain common to many.[1] She has been the headliner for The Box, an exclusive “Theatre of Varieties” in both New York City (2007) and London (2011) venues for the past 14 years. She frequently performs internationally.
EARLY CAREER
In the mid 1990’s Wood performed in trans prostitute bars as a platform dancer and stripper. Through a friend she met the legendary Neo-burlesque performer Dirty Martini who helped Wood craft a classic strip tease as a tribute to Vicki Lynne. In need of a stage name she took the name Rose Wood which combined her performance life with her day job as a furniture restorer.
Within the neo burlesque milieu Wood created what is now known as her signature number, The Bottle Act, which incorporates many of the elements that continue to make a Rose Wood performance so compelling. In this number Wood presents as a hardened truck stop escort in Daisy Dukes and a fringed t-shirt . The audience is immediately brought into physical contact as Wood takes a long pull of Jack Daniels, makes direct eye contact with them and sprays it in their direction. She proceeds unenthusiastically and with a heavy dose of ire, to strut her wares to Muddy Water’s “Mannish Boy.” Depositing her dirty panties on the head of a nearby audience member and emptying a condom on another.[3] The full frontal reveal of Wood’s mixed gendered body removes the binary from the character, making it neither male nor female. Rose illustrates how a man is capable of all the same affectations of a woman — that what is holding us back from accepting this is our own deep-rooted conventions.” [4] In this display, the power dynamic in the room flips. A marginal character possessed of nothing but her dignity, will not bow to the wealthy patrons who watch carefully, as her physical presence threatens. The anal gymnastics needed for the finale is what sets her apart from other performers.
As venues began to close and audiences of the neo-burlesque became more mainstream Wood continued to explore deeper subjects and her acts became more extreme. When The Box opened in 2007, Wood found a venue that supported her new work and offered a direct relationship to the audience. As Simon Hammerstein the owner of The Box states, the venue was constructed to “break down the barriers…it’s a club where tomorrow’s hangover comes with a lot of “big” cultural-studies questions.”[5]
TRANSITION
Wood’s initial transition from MTF in 2009, undergoing breast implants sans bottom surgery has been widely documented by filmmakers and photographers in particular. Her mixed gender body is used as the bare bones of a costume for the character portrayed. Asked how her performance style came about, Wood answers “The place I find that I can connect with people is the body. The body with its beautiful and horrible elements is a playing field where the mind and heart act themselves out. It’s the mind and heart that render the body vulnerable, strong, filthy, addicted, exalted, etc. I like to use the body to show that emotional truth is far more revealing than nudity. “[6] Wood believes an immersive audience experience is key to her performances “Almost nightly someone will acknowledge I’ve touched something vital in them. It changes people’s perspective on what the other is.”[7]
PERFORMANCES
Attracting the attention of club goers, performance lovers and academics alike, a Rose Wood performance is a complex tale told through a fully cultivated character, and a concise narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end. Frequently using her orifices, she addresses “transgressive acts of sex and violence, including penetration and bodily fluids of every kind.”[8] The audience is often directly involved compelling them to forgo their usual distractions until it’s once again safe to carry on.
As Ben Walters writes “To the observant rather than prurient eye, even ostensibly outrageous acts open up plenty of conceptually fertile territory”[9] and Joe Jeffrey notes that Wood’s “body of work demands that the spectator look at it in a way that sees artistic and critical possibilities other than stupefied shock or revulsion.” [10]
Wood’s interaction with famous celebrity audience members has been widely reported. Most famously emptying condoms on Leonardo di Caprio and Ridley Scott,[11] vomiting on Susan Sarandon, and urinating on Adam Lampert.[12]
