{"id":777962,"date":"2025-12-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=777962"},"modified":"2025-12-01T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T05:00:00","slug":"catherine-opie-on-the-story-of-her-legendary-dyke-deck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=777962","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Opie on the story of her legendary Dyke Deck"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Catherine Opie, Dyke Deck<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Catherine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Catherine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Catherine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Catherine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Catherine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Catherine<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Gallery \/ 14 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Catherine Opie<\/a> is punk: unwavering in her commitment to community, fearless in her creative process and relentless in her pursuit to speak truth to power. \u201cI\u2019ve always been invested in creating space for people,\u201d she tells Dazed. \u201cIt\u2019s a critical time right now to speak up!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Opie is meeting us over Zoom to talk about Dyke Deck<\/em> \u2013 the now iconic art collectable she made in the mid-90s to celebrate the lesbian community in San Francisco. The 52-card deck of cards features studio portraits of friends and strangers from the lesbian community, with b<\/span>utches, jocks, couples and femmes adorning each suit. Dyke Deck<\/em> is part of lesbian lore: in queer circles, fans spend years scouring eBay and art auctions trying to get their hands on the original, which now commands up to \u00a31,000 per deck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time she was making Dyke Deck<\/em>, Opie was also creating her inimitable artwork, Pervert<\/em>. The radical self-portrait, couched in a formal tradition of the 16th century painter Hans Holbein, pictures Opie topless, proudly adorned in a leather hood with \u2018Pervert\u2019 carved into her chest by renowned body modifier, Raelyn Gallinamodifier. The photograph was Opie\u2019s response to rising tensions within the queer community, which saw the sexual radicals \u2013 who, like her, were avid practitioners of sadomasochism \u2013 disowned in reaction to the push for gay marriage and Jesse Helms\u2019 campaign against Aids research funding. In that moment, making Dyke Deck<\/em> offered Opie an emotional rebound \u2013 a moment of play amidst the heaviness of the political climate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opie\u2019s intention with Dyke Deck <\/em>was to make something fun for the community. \u201cBack then, my photographs sold for $600 a print, and I couldn\u2019t afford to buy my own work,\u201d she tells Dazed. \u201cSo Dyke Deck<\/em> was about making art accessible. I wanted to make art for all of us.\u201d Now, 30 years later, Opie is reissuing the original Dyke Deck<\/em> in collaboration with MOCA, as well as a new \u201creshuffled\u201d deck that includes 25 previously unseen portraits and a replica of the original casting call she posted all over The Castro.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Below, Catherine Opie speaks to Dazed about the making of Dyke Deck<\/em>, the importance of speaking up and how joy can be a form of political subversion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Catherine<\/span><\/span>
Casting Call<\/span>Courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Hey Cathy, how are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> You\u2019ve caught me on an optimistic day. I\u2019m working on a piece right now where I\u2019m the lesbian cowboy. When the people of Portland, Oregon, recently pulled out inflatables making fun of the authoritarian action this president has launched against their city, they taught me recently that we can have joy in our activism. I\u2019ve been thinking about the history of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and just what it means to personify a critical voice within queer culture. The lesbian cowboy emobodies of all if that and needs to be born.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about the origin story of Dyke Deck<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> I was in San Francisco, and it was actually the summer I made Pervert<\/em>. I was still making portraits of the community. Back then, my photographs sold for $600 a print, and I couldn\u2019t afford to buy my own work. So Dyke Deck<\/em> was about making art accessible. I wanted to make art for all of us. I also wanted to make something fun for the community. At that time, I was living in Los Angeles, but all my friends and playmates were living in San Francisco, so every summer I would go there to play in the dungeons, and that\u2019s where I put out the open call.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So you made specific portraits for the deck? How did you cast people?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> I made a poster, printed on red paper at Kinko\u2019s and put it up all over Valencia Street in the Castro. It basically said, \u2018Dyke Deck<\/em>, it\u2019s fun, it\u2019s wild, it\u2019s what every dyke has been waiting for.\u2019 The project was about personas, and we had specific categories: couples are hearts, jocks are clubs, femmes are diamonds, and butches are spades. It was all queer play.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Catherine<\/span><\/span>
Photography Catherine Opie<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I imagine the shoot was wild, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> We did a three-day shoot at the studio, and you have no idea how much fun it was. People would show up in the craziest outfits. There were a few friends, including Diane DiMassa, but mostly the people who showed up were strangers. People came with all these props, they hung out, and ate pizza. It was fantastic!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about Adriene Jenik\u2019<\/span>s custom \u2018Poke-Her\u2019 games, which come with each deck?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> Everyone thinks the dealer on the deck is me, but it\u2019s Adriene, a great artist friend of mine who was a professional dealer in Vegas. She devised all these special games for the Dyke Deck<\/em>, like \u2018I saw Jodie\u2019 and \u2018Lick my Boots\u2019. What is really great to see is how excited people are about the Dyke Deck<\/em> now. In 1995, this was not a popular product. It was a product failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, say more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> You\u2019re gonna laugh, but I took the decks from MOCA up to the Castro and set up a little table and tried to sell them before Christmas. I wore a Dykes Lumber apron someone gave me to hold the cash. I got so many people saying, \u2018Go back to LA\u2019, or \u2018you\u2019re a poser LA lesbian\u2019. It was a brutal two days, and I only sold five decks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Projects can almost be ahead of their time \u2013 ideas that haven\u2019<\/span>t met their audience yet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong>Dyke Deck <\/em>was ahead of its time. Lesbians were not seen in mainstream culture. Ellen [DeGeneres] hadn\u2019t even come out yet. For me, the best story about Dyke Deck<\/em> is from Christina Quarles, a painter now on the board of MOCA. Her wife is her high school girlfriend, and in 1995, they bought the Dyke Deck<\/em> from the MOCA bookstore after hearing about it from friends. She is one of the Altadena fire victims. She lost everything, but managed to rescue her original deck. When I talked to her about it, she said, \u2018Don\u2019t you understand, Cathy? In 1995, we would sit around in high school, and someone would pull out the Dyke Deck<\/em>, and we would dream of what kind of lesbian we wanted to be.\u2019 This touched me. This is why we had to remake it. We are back in the culture wars, and all the young queers are super scared right now. We thought we had rights, but it\u2019s all being stripped back. Homophobia is alive and well!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Catherine<\/span><\/span>
Photography Catherine Opie<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Interestingly, you made Dyke Deck<\/em> at the same time you made Pervert<\/em>. Was this project a rebound from the emotional heaviness of creating Pervert<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> Yes, on reflection. I needed to make a Dyke Deck <\/em>for myself, too. To remind myself that we weren\u2019t gonna let the politics of the culture wars get us down. We were still going to have joy and fun. And this is why it\u2019s the perfect time to reissue it, as we\u2019re facing challenging times again!<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you always played cards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> My grandmother taught me how to shuffle as a child, and I still love it. I play cards with friends two or three times a week, including a regular game of cannasta with Jane Fonda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How are you feeling at this moment? And how is that shaping your practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie:<\/strong> For me, making work is about a relationship to dialogue. How do I use my language to understand the historical ramifications of the times that we\u2019re living in through my different bodies of work? I feel like we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us, and I\u2019ve been reflecting on my role as a queer elder. How am I going to be really, really useful? How can I help calm the incredible fear? The youth are scared. And they also feel disenfranchised, believing that politics will never work for them. So, how do we re-educate about civics?<\/span><\/p>\n

We must also protect the trans community, especially the trans youth. I think it goes back to actually working on hotlines again. I used to work on the rape hotlines in the 80s and do a lot of advocacy work. I\u2019m being called back to these grassroots endeavours. I also write to the Supreme Court every week. This all feels very full circle in many ways. I\u2019m 64 years old, and I\u2019m still just trying to make queer culture important for all of us and to hopefully find a little joy in it. We need to do both things simultaneously: be activists and still put on a cowboy hat!<\/span><\/p>\n

Catherine Opie\u2019s <\/em>Dyke Deck and <\/em>Dyke Deck: Reshuffle Edition are available to order here<\/a> now.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69160\/1\/catherine-opie-dyke-deck-moca-lesbian-playing-cards-photography<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Opie, Dyke Deck Gallery \/ 14 images Catherine Opie is punk: unwavering in her commitment to community, fearless in her creative process and relentless in her pursuit to speak truth to power. \u201cI\u2019ve always been invested in creating space for people,\u201d she tells Dazed. \u201cIt\u2019s a critical time right now to speak up!\u201d Opie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":777963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-777962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/777963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}