It’s Not All Drag: A Conversation with Hungry

By Jake Yuzna

Walker Publishing Filed to Design · Part of Design without Binaries

Hungry. Photo by Milena Braune. Image courtesy of the artist.

While studying in Berlin and London, Johannes J. Jaruraak developed a startlingly unique persona, Hungry. Building from the gleeful mayhem of Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery and Club Kids, Hungry utilizes a plethora of makeup, fashion, and craft techniques to construct otherworldly creations that defy simple classification. Is it drag, performance art—or something entirely different?

Taking time out from their latest tour, Hungry sat down with the Walker to discuss collaborating with Björk, the lasting influence of NYC Club Kids of the 1990s, and how to escape the creative dead end of the “Big Drag Swamp.”

Jake Yuzna
Could you introduce yourself and your practice?

Hungry

I am a visual artist based in Berlin who works in a few different types of media, ranging from performance to makeup, costuming, photography, and modeling.

JY

You’ve become well known for your makeup and costumes. Was that always a part of your practice, or something you came to later on?

H

I never really wanted to go into makeup, or even considered makeup being a part of what I do. My background is in fashion design, and I originally moved to Berlin to study and get a bachelor’s degree in fashion design.

My first focus was on garments, the design and craftsmanship that comes with creating what we wear. As I was creating different pieces each semester, I always had to document them. It got tiresome to have to go out and search for models each time I had to photograph some of my work. In order to avoid that, I started making all of the garments in my own measurements so I could be my own model.

I didn’t want it to always be obvious that I was the one modeling all the clothing. That led me to creating disguises out of makeup and hair. Since everyone in my course was also looking for people to model their work, I started modeling for other designers. Every time I [modeled], I started asking myself what I could do to better match the garment I was wearing. I’m just wearing this piece. What could I do to myself to match that piece? That was the beginning of Hungry.

JY

How did the look and aesthetic form?

H

As part of my studies, we had to do internships. I moved to London to intern with Aitor Throup's technically focused New Object Research as well as Vivienne Westwood.

At the same time, London taught me that there was a proper industry for drag. I had done drag before in Berlin, but it was more out of the fun of dressing up and going to parties. In London, it was established in the entertainment industry. There was so much more freedom in terms of what would be considered as drag. Back then, London drag was much more free than what you would find in Germany. Now, all the different kinds of drag seem to have merged into a Big Drag Swamp, but back then there were distinct approaches and styles you would find city to city.

The mix of the internships and the scene in London supported me to just experiment and channel some of my creativity into drag. I started having weekly gigs in drag and began to realize that I could maybe make a living with it if I put the work into it. When I got back to Berlin after the internships, I still had that drive to keep exploring these kinds of creations. Hungry was mostly developed in London but didn’t come together until I returned to Berlin. I kind of needed that London hustle to get started. (smiles)

JY

What role does social media and imagery play in Hungry? Was there always a link because of the modeling, or was it due to a need to promote?

H

Back then, social media was very different. I was starting to document the work myself while I was going out in Berlin. Backstage at every gig, you would find me with a little tripod and camera. Everyone knew to just leave me to my little self portrait project.

The freelance work started pretty much as soon as I graduated. During my last semester, I was already touring with other drag performers. I got swept up by in the early drag hype.

Then shortly after graduating, I got a message on Instagram asking if I would consider doing some makeup work with Björk.

JY

What was that like?

H

I was excited but also was very, very careful to [not] get too excited. I’m not one to trust things like that on social media. But it did end up happening and now we’ve been working together since 2017. I would have been happy to just work on the first project we talked about, but they ended up inviting me back. We did photo shoots and then that led to tours.

JY

Did shut down of live performances during the COVID pandemic shift your approach?

When pandemic shut everything live down. During the lockdown I started streaming on Twitch. This was mostly to regain some connection with an audience, but I quickly realized it’s a very different audience than an audience at a live event.

JY

How so?

H

I first heard about the digital shows that people in Berlin were putting on Twitch because there were no physical shows. Honestly, I’m not a huge social media person and was confused at first by how it worked. I quickly discovered that there is this whole network of drag queens streaming performances and games. The drag queens were really adapting to the platform during Covid in order to keep performing.

JY

Do you feel a pressure or need to create content for so many platforms, whether it’s Twitch, TikTok, or Instagram? Does it take away from your practice or add something to it?

H

The way I started out was using Instagram as my portfolio. It is still what I mostly do.

Creating the images as a form of documentation is still my focus. Making a video or other content on top of that is always something extra. With me already producing everything around the image, it’s often hard for me to just have the extra time to make something more.

JY

You mentioned the “Big Drag Swamp.”

H

M-hm.

JY

Could you maybe explain that a bit more?

H

Now, this is just a personal thing that I’ve noticed seems to have changed. My first inspirations would have been the late 1980s and 1990s club kids in London and NYC. Their approach to clothing, makeup, and identity seemed really focused on not being defined and not really being categorized. That is what drew me in because it gave an artist so much freedom. You had genderbending, gender-fuck, and a very open idea of what dressing up was. It was much more interesting to me than drag.

At first, I tagged and defined what I did as being a Club Kid, but now that seems to be a term that people stopped using—or maybe forgot about. This seemed to have happened at the same time as the big drag trend started sweeping over, well, the world really. Drag became a big industry. But curiously that also meant that anything that wasn’t drag but played with costumes, makeup, and identity was suddenly considered drag. Drag just sort of absorbed everything near it. The great thing about this was how drag opened up, and drag performers were being accepted and loved by so many more people.

On the other hand, many people who are passionate about being Club Kids are now just being called drag performers. Some take offense to that because they never felt at all home or welcomed by drag. They were a separate thing. Before this "merger" they didn’t have to deal with being put into any categories.

JY

You mentioned Club Kids who inspired you. Could you name a few?

H

When I was around 17 years old, I watched the movie Party Monster. That led me to read James St. James’s book, Disco Bloodbath, which also then gave me just a bunch of more names to research. Kabuki, Waltpaper, Leigh Bowery, and all of those artists who were really making something new in the 1980s and 1990s.

JY

It was the same with me, but we had the Club Kids appearing on daytime talk shows in the U.S. I’d come home from school and watch the whole Limelight crew on Sally Jessy Raphael. It was like this whole other reality opened up and said, “We’ve been waiting for you.”

H

Exactly.

JY

Do you feel like Hungry is a separate persona or character, or just an element of your own persona?  With Club Kids and even Ziggy Stardust, there is a historic range of how artists utilize identity and persona.

H

Hmmmm, it would probably be something in-between because I didn’t find a character to settle on. There is a story around who each new creation is, but I’ve never been happy with just one creation, because I know there is always another path I could be taking.

JY

Do you consider yourself a drag artist?

H

Whenever I introduce myself, I say that I’m a visual artist. But I do consider myself a Drag artist, as these were my roots, which I am still taking nourishment from. That being said, Drag has become a very attainable thing, a very easy thing, and a very safe thing. Back when I started out drag, it was difficult. You weren’t praised for it, and you weren’t adored for it. It was very dangerous just being outside in drag. This wasn’t that long ago. I had to be careful even getting from my apartment to a car. There was a real chance of violence or something happening in my neighborhood. Getting over that was an important part of my work’s development because I had to make sure that I wanted to do it. I had to make sure that it meant something to me. That step is mostly gone now because now it’s very easy to just do drag for fun.

I’ve gotten some backlash for saying that. Some have misinterpreted it to mean that drag can’t be fun. That it must be hard or dangerous. That isn’t what I mean. All I’m trying to say is that when I started out in drag, I was very aware of what it meant to go out in public dressed like this. I was aware of what could happen. That made me say, “Okay, if I am going to be doing this, I will have to have a voice. I have to be saying something.” I told myself, if I’m not going to create something unique then I’m not going to do it. I kind of gave myself that ultimatum that what I was doing had to add something to the conversation or culture for me to bother doing it.

JY

Are there directions with your own work that you are excited about exploring in the future?

H

That is an ongoing topic for me. I’m often not content or pleased with what I have presented so far because I’m always thinking it hasn’t reached the final perfect stage yet.

Working with Björk and on different productions for others made me realize that I’m enjoying the behind-the-scenes work quite a lot. The collaboration of being part of a team that makes something larger than us all, I’m enjoying that much more than I would have thought. I’m trying to go into more work that is collaboration focused—work for stage productions, movies, video productions, and that sort of thing.

I think this issue with my work is the same for that of the Club Kids and others that inspired me. How do you document it and give it longevity? So often this kind of work is perceived as just existing in the moment at the nightclub, on the social media post, or in performance or on the shoot. That hides the impact it has on those who make it and those who experience it. That downgrades the practice. This line of work does so much more than people often realize.▪︎

Follow Hungry here and here.

This article is part of the series Design without Binaries, an exploration of nonbinary design through print, objects, fashion, identity, and more.