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Sui Generis (for Claude Cahun)

from Avant (​+​2 Digital Booklets) by Nas Hedron

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about

Claude Cahun (France, 1894-1954).

Born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, Cahun was a gender fluid French photographer, sculptor, and author who, in 1917, adopted the name Claude Cahun, which in French is gender-neutral. In the novel Aveux Non Avenus, Cahun wrote, “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.” Suzanne Malherbe, who in childhood was Schwob’s step-sister, adopted the name Marcel Moore, and became Cahun’s lifelong partner and frequent collaborator.

Cahun is best known for photographic self-portraits, sometimes appearing as female, sometimes as male, and sometimes as androgynous. During the German occupation of France in World War II, Cahun and Moore were active members of the anti-Nazi resistance. In 1944 they were captured and sentenced to death, but the area where they were held was liberated by the allies before they could be executed.

This composition is written in Cahun’s voice (as I imagine it), contrasting the commonplace idea of a woman as embodying a static, defined set of conventions with an alternative view of humans as layered, uncategorizable beings. Unlike most of these tracks, it’s not named for one of Cahun’s works, but, in a way, for all of them. Sui Generis is a Latin term, adopted into English, meaning “unique,” “without precedent,” or “forming its own category.”

The idea that each person should define themselves rather than fitting into a preexisting category, no matter how loudly society objects, was a clear thread running throughout Cahun’s life and work—even when there was a war on and the people objecting were Nazis.

lyrics

She is always *the* woman.
The most perfect machine.
She’s singular, precise.
And she’s sex.

Hmmm.

She’s a mask, a mystery.
And she is *the* woman.
*The* woman.

credits

from Avant (​+​2 Digital Booklets), released September 28, 2018

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Nas Hedron image

Nas Hedron Toronto, Ontario

“An artist who gives a fresh new and startling meaning to the word interdisciplinary.”
-- Donald Brackett, author of "Back to Black: Amy Winehouse's Only Masterpiece" and "Fleetwood Mac: 40 Years of Creative Chaos."

Nas Hedron divides his time between his native Canada and Brazil. ... more

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