Creature Feature: Living Plastic with Kenneth Leon

Kenneth’s look is pretty strictly masculine. He loves beards and big eyebrows (and he beautifully sports both himself) and prefers boy looks to female-impersonation or drag. “I identify more with masculinity,” he says. “I’m more inspired by men’s looks than women’s. I like to do feminine things with my dolls.” It’s all very visual and aesthetically pleasing. With exaggerated facial makeup and structured garments, Kenneth wants to draw you in with his intense looks; He’s the Ken. It’s all very queer to me.

Kenneth wants to continue working with the Bad Kids and doesn’t have any plan of branching out on his own any time soon. “I’m pretty comfortable right now and I’m really focusing on performance art and becoming a better performance artist,” he says. “When I’m older, I’d like to get more into fashion, but right now, I’m not focusing on anything too important besides myself and being really selfish.” He’s hoping to cut back on his doll photography in order to focus on his brand of performance art. “The nice thing about performing is that I can focus on where I’m at and not everything else,” he says. It’s not spread out; It’s a very present thing. His most recent performance was with the Bad Kids at the Baba Yaga event earlier this month at Metro Bar. It was a stunning combination of ghostly visuals and Kenneth left quite an impression on the audience.

Kenneth brands his own art as “swag fag.” From what I can tell, it seems like a combination of filth and beauty, dripping with sex and plastic parts. “Something that I do that not a lot of people do—because maybe they don’t feel comfortable about their bodies or whatever—is being an artist and a sex symbol at the same time,” he says. “I think people need to embrace that within themselves more, because you’re gonna wake up one day and be old and you’re gonna look back and be like ‘God, I was gorgeous.’ You’ve gotta just say fuck it to your insecurities and just be free.“ When I dug deeper into his personal ideas of how he embraces his own self-identity, I learned he does like playing characters. He loves puppy play and confesses that he’s “come to the conclusion that every form of sex is a form of role play unless you’re really making love,” he says.