Elliot Gordon Mercer is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and performance scholar. Working at the intersection of drag and theatrical self-portraiture, he designs and constructs historical scenarios that are staged for the production of faux-documentary films and photographs.
Centered on queering the experience of history, Mercer engages drag to integrate himself as a main figure of each scene. His fictitious archival images and their corresponding curatorial texts interweave scholarship and creativity, imagination and historical accuracy, in a process of queer storytelling.
Mercer received a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary theatre and drama from Northwestern University and an M.A. in performance studies from NYU. He is a graduate of the Tamalpa Institute’s professional training program in expressive arts therapy. Mercer is a 2022-2024 American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellow.
