Ancient Intersex Deities Unmasked In New Cambridge Museum of Archaeology Exhibition

Ancient Intersex Deities

Artist Ela Xora has been invited by the internationally renowned Museum of Archaeology in the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge University to launch her new exhibition.  The artist will also host the years most coruscating Christmas party in the world of academia.

Xora was a judge on last weeks Rainbow List for the Independent On Sunday and will present a new exhibition called “Through a glass, darkly : Unmasking ancient deities and intersex identities” comprising pure 999 hallmarked Silver masks of forgotten Greco Roman intersex deities, which will be worn by the first ever intersex personalities announced on this years historic Intersex inclusive list, including ex BBC Radio 1 agony aunt and acclaimed councillor Sarah Graham who was named this years number 2 most influential LGBTI personality in the country beating supermodel turned actress Cara Delevinge at number 7. The number one spot went to Eastenders newcomer and soaps first Trans male actor Riley Carter Millington who is due to start appearing on screen from January.  The list also included acclaimed “She’s A Boy” author Joe Holliday,  acclaimed Winter Pride curator and artist Simon Tarrant, Doctor Who’s first trans actress Bethany Black and trans Cambridge classicist Charlotte Northrop who has made history this year by successfully challenging dress code policy at the prestigious university attended by the likes of Stephen Fry, Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton. 

The event will be attended by some of the worlds leading academics and is a major spotlight for Intersex people so that they finally gain equal human rights in UK law says Xora “this exhibition of silver masks, paintings and aural works echo and reveal extensive UN, Council of Europe and Amnesty International statements to end the stigmatizing legal invisibility, non consenting surgeries and hormonal modification of Intersex people, forcing them into exclusive black and white gender categories which goes against the instincts and biology of some, perpetuating the tropes of suffering, shame and secrecy in each of their lives for thousands and thousands of years.  The incredible work of IntersexUK and UKIA plus the fascinating yet little known historical persecution of Intersex people in Western culture is finally unmasked by my art in this historic Cambridge event”. 

The exhibition is the crescendo to Ela Xora’s joint Silver Bo(X) exhibitions held last year which saw Xora appear on the front cover of the Independent On Sunday with Royal and celebrity sculptress Frances Segelman, who will also be exhibiting the first intersex sculpture in Cambridge history alongside Xora’s precious metal masks at the exclusive event, together with a Silver Bo(X) petition which has been celebrity supported by Graham Norton, Lena Headey, Frances Segelman, Richard O’Brien, Natalia Tena, Courtney Love and Sir Derek Jacobi to date.  Aural works created by Xora and narrated by Hollywood actress and recent Emmy nominated Game of Thrones star Lena Headey and Harry Potter star Natalia Tena will also be premiered to the academics, with Lena being a particularly vocal supporter of her artist friends exhibitions this year tweeting recently “I sadly missed @elaxora #nomorescars exhibition…proud of you @elaxora” in support for her friend during her artist in residency at Limewharf Gallery last month, which marked Intersex Awareness Day and was attended by amongst others Holby City star Chizzy Akudolu.

Controversially artist Xora also announced that a group court case would be brought against the UK Government by herself and some of the Intersex people on this years Rainbow List in January unless an inquiry into Intersex people and their human rights was announced during December. The silver clad artist said a group hunger strike had been shelved for now but she argues that the Government must listen and respond to the United Nations and other human rights organisations on the current abuses of Intersex people. Xora said “The Government has been holding an inquiry into Trans human rights recently which is encouraging and over due for transgender people but my art exhibition elucidates the shadowed plight of Intersex people who are invisible in our society to this day. This exhibition demands that they now launch a similar inquiry into Intersex human rights and the institutional exclusive binary facade in law that has existed for thousands of years in our culture since being cemented in Greco Rome. I am asking the Prime Minister personally to please stop masking the existence of Intersex people in law because you are exacerbating their abuse in culture. If the government doesn’t announce an inquiry into intersex people in December I will be forced to go Pankhurst on their arses in January”.

The 35 year old artist started wearing a half mask in public 5 years ago to cover her right eye after a botched NHS operation left her unable to wear make up on it for 2 years. She was recently asked to design a mask for iconic opera Lakmé staged this year by Opera Holland Park and says that she often gets comments about her masked look being very “phantom of the opera”. The mask maker says “I always get people shouting Lady Gaga or Phantom of the opera at me when I go out. I always respond no darling, Phantom of the Pre Op”. The emerging art world figure says that she hopes to continue designing masks for other opera productions but her ambitions lie in feature films and she is currently creating masks for a soon to be announced Hollywood production as well as another “major art exhibition” at the Museum of Archaeology of Cambridge University next year alongside Frances Segelman who is also due to exhibit her much anticipated sculpture of Prince Charles in 2016. 

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