Autobiography of an Androgyne

Application summary

Autobiography of an Androgyne is an intermedial video work about non-binary Jennie June’s life in her own words, drawn from a near-vanished trilogy—Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918), The Female Impersonators (1922), and the unpublished Riddle of the Underworld—a pioneering published record of queer life that history almost erased. Our project translates this rare body of writing into a contemporary moving-image portrait: a two-channel installation that retells Jennie June’s story and secures it within today’s cultural canon. Channel One features readings by our non-binary and trans friends and collaborators, recorded in Helsinki in the fall of 2026, giving the books a living voice and community presence. Channel Two presents filmed geographies connected to the trilogy—locations that anchor her trajectory—so that the readings function as a voice-over drifting across the landscapes. We work directly from scarce first-edition materials and from the trilogy as a whole, including the manuscript Riddle of the Underworld. The aim is not to reconstruct a biography as a museum piece, but to give durable visibility—text, voice, image, and sound—to a life long suppressed and pathologized. By treating editorial framings, marginalia aimed at jurists, physicians, and academics as structural parts of the text, we offer insight into how gender variance was institutionally positioned at the time. During the grant period we will complete the pre-production, conduct fieldwork and film geographies during a confirmed FCINY × Pioneer Works residency in New York (Jan–Mar 2026), and to continue with filming in Helsinki in the fall of 2026, followed by writing, post-production, presentations, and talks leading to the completion of a two-channel installation. The working period prepares the installation for public presentation at Pioneer Works in early 2027, establishing the work for subsequent Nordic shows and discourse.