QX Meets…Cassandra

Photos by Matt Spike

The drag babe talks freedom of speech, spirituality, and shoes!

“Come here, Toby…” it’s the first sweltering weekend of the year, and on Hampstead Heath, a flustered Scandinavian au pair is ushering her charge out of the blazing path of Cassandra, a seven-foot-tall drag queen wearing a rapidly disintegrating leopard print bikini and a pair of see-through plastic heels that have seen better days.

Cassandra nods to the au pair. “See-through goes with everything!” she says, gesturing up and down her body by way of explanation. The au pair nods nervously and, in her confusion, walks directly into a bush.

Also known as performance artist Stephen Eyre, Cassandra has made a name for herself on East London’s frenetic queer club scene in the last couple of years, for doing some totally mad shit.

Her harebrained schemes have involved covering a downstairs basement bar in broccoli because “it reminds me of an alien forest”; living in a fountain dressed as a mermaid for a full seven days; performing She Wolf by Shakira inside a dog cage; and loads more amazing stuff that no-one can remember because everyone got too drunk. 

Now, we’re with her on Hampstead Heath, doing a photo shoot with acclaimed fetish photographer Matt Spike. At one point she puts on a homemade pink mermaids’ tail, falls in the pond “by accident” and emerges singing Part Of This World, to rapturous applause from a hundred or so shocked and delighted onlookers.

It’s a perfect example of Cassandra’s infectious energy and a creativity so unique and wonderful that it’s frankly dangerous. In between impromptu Cave Girl moments and conversations with people’s dogs, Dylan Jones chatted to her about WHAT MAKES CASSANDRA TICK.

You’re always storming around London as Cassandra! Do you ever get bad reactions?

It depends where I go! Most people love it. Some don’t, but I just know if they’re really horrible to me, they’re probably gonna go home and have a wank.

You had a moment outside Wood Green Station once, right?

Yeah! They were throwing stones at me! They couldn’t get to me though, and they missed. I was blowing kisses. It was from a distance.

So many of them do it from a distance don’t they. They’re scared!

Yeah, they were too scared to actually hit me. I was bigger than all of them too. I’m a big girl! People always think I’m a petite Asian girl. LITTLE DO THEY KNOW!

You put on a club night last week…how did that go?

Cassandra’s Palace! I had some great performers, like Jonathan Graham, who’s a poetry performer…he painted himself blue and was covered in chains. He did a really vexed and confrontational poetry piece, but I didn’t know how to turn off the smoke machine, so the room was full of smoke and no-one could see him.

Maybe that added to it?

Yeah because the smoke cleared and there was just this blue man in chains, and everyone was really freaked out. And also like, amazed.

So…where does Cassandra come from?

Well Jack Cullen says she’s from Hong Kong via Romford, but DON’T LISTEN TO HIM. I’m not even from Romford, I just pass through there on occasion. Cassandra’s been around since I was a child. But she became more of a defined thing when I was at art school. I used to do paintings of women – female nudes. You know, like pre-Raphaelite style. But my tutors didn’t understand it from a feminist perspective, and some of my male tutors thought they were just sexy woman paintings, coming from a hot-blooded straight boy. So I had to explain, I don’t WANT the naked women, I want to BE the naked women. That’s when I started dressing up, to articulate a queer perspective, a transgender perspective, a different way of looking at women. There’s not just the male gaze as an art theory, there’s a way gay guys look at women and women look at women and transgender women look at women.

So when did you first get into THE SCENE?

When I graduated actually, in 2015. I wanted to get my performance stuff out there, even if it was a bit different. Someone mentioned Jonny Woo, said he was a really cool performer and had a place called The Glory. They were doing an open-mic night there and I thought I’d go sing one of my songs. I actually met Jonny, but didn’t realize it was him! I just thought it was some scally lad. He was in his trakkies and he was shouting at performers, shouting “SEX!” I thought he was just some fun guy. Anyway I told him to play my track.

Ha! So what do you think of the gays? Do you think the gays are happy?

Oh my god! Segue! Well, there are struggles, but it’s a lot better than before.

Maybe sometimes it’s good to have a bit of adversity.

Yeah! Things to struggle against and inspire you. And I’m having a good old time now! I’m getting to do what I want to do…most of the people from my hometown who bullied me are just, you know, working. And maybe they’re happy with that! Everyone’s different. I think Buddhism is great. Spirituality.

Are you spiritual?

Well I wrote an astrology column for you Dylan, as you remember. I don’t identify with just one spiritual system. I read bits and bobs. Lots of religions have similar maxims or teachings. There are universal truths. You know that Madonna song ‘Frozen’? That’s so spiritual. ‘You only see what your eyes want to see.’ In life, when stuff isn’t going how you want it to go, if you’re only making your life be what you want it to be, you’re missing out the beauty that’s already around you. Sometimes anyway. Sometimes it’s just shit.

Tell me more about Cassandra. Have your family met her?

Yeah, they like her! They were a bit wary at first, because I was never one to directly sit down my parents and say ‘I need to tell you something…there’s this girl…and it’s actually me.’ My mum saw Facebook pictures occasionally and I was like ‘oh it’s just my art project.’ And I said ‘you can come if you want, it’s my exhibition! I’m gonna be a naked woman.’ And she sort of just looked down.

What did you make of all the drama with Vanity Von Glow?

Well, I saw everyone going in on her straight away! “THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! NOT IN MY COMMUNITY! IT’S A DISGRACE!” And I kind of felt for her. I didn’t know her intentions for doing it at first…that the central idea of the rally was free speech. Years ago, the law condemned free expression of our identities. People’s moral justification for that was that they believed certain things to be wrong. There needs to be more of a culture of discussion, and openness to ideas. People who have challenging ideas – we need to allow those ideas into the public forum, to be debated and discussed. Because that way, you can debate the validity of the idea. The only way to get to a sound conclusion is by discussing ideas and listening to each other. In the words of Kylie, it’s better the devil you know. 

So you told me Cassandra’s look is inspired by Bottecelli-esque figures…is she inspired by anyone or anything else?

Right now, I’m in a real Debbie Harry phase…Bohemian New York, bit scruffy, but really quirky and fun at the same time. There’s a singer in a band called Transvision Vamp who I love, Wendy James. She’s really cool, love her style. Madonna, Desperately Seeking Susan Era. Oh and probably my mum!

A lot of people have different personas in drag, but I feel like you’re just you.

Well Cassandra’s just the girl version of me. Bit messy. Bit bohemian. But the idea of persona is interesting…Camile Paglia, in her Madonna essay, where she discusses the relationship in Paganism and pop culture, she talks about recognizing that “we are nothing but masks”. We ARE our face at the time. Because the only consistent thing is our consciousness underneath. It’s all about how we present ourselves. And when we age, we change. Even if you’re not a drag queen, everything is drag.

Cassandra is singing and performing her own electro songs at a squat party in Deptford on 26th May. For more details, follow her on Instagram @stephen_eyre_

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