Drag as a Living Work of Art: Oxy-Moron on Identity, Joy and Clip-ons

-Steff Malherbe

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Oxy grew up in Bloemfontein in the Free State. All his formative years were spent there, going to school, starting out in hospitality management and even discovering the art of drag. That discovery came through the wonderful world of social media, seeing as Bloem didn’t (and still doesn’t) exactly have a thriving drag scene. The first drag queen Oxy ever saw was Alyssa Edwards, and if you know anything about drag, this is baptism by fire. He was hooked.

“I was in awe of what they were able to do. I honestly thought that they were women. I was really intrigued by this,” he told me. “That’s when I started bingeing Drag Race. It gave me perspective: You don’t need to be like everyone else to ‘fit in.’ Sometimes you have to be a misfit to fit in. And what is there to fit into? There is no puzzle you have to fit into.”

This spark became the catalyst for his own exploration. He went to the China shop and bought some cheap make up. There were blemishes, chunky blocked brows, but it didn’t matter because he was experimenting. “When I look back to where I started in 2015 to now, I can't believe the transformation that I myself have gone through,” he said. “Not only in the art itself, but also as a person. I have discovered so much about myself, about the community, about everything that is to do with just being. Just being who you are authentically. Not giving a rat's ass about what anyone has to say. And if people say something, it's brilliant. Because it's free publicity.”

Starting his drag journey in 2015, I was interested to hear what the drag scene was like in South Africa at the time and where he was performing. As I guessed, Oxy confirmed there was no drag scene. At the time he was staying in Saldanha Bay, having been transferred there by his hospitality programme, and of all places, that was where Oxy did drag for the first time. She made her own dress, for her staff party, by laying the material on the floor of her hotel room and tracing the outline of her body on it.

“I made my own little mermaid cut. There were no finishes. No nothing. It was for our staff party. I still have that wig. I still use that wig today. When I saw everyone’s reactions, that was it. I knew this was what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be. I am actually getting goosebumps talking about it because the astonishment and the acceptance was beyond my imagination, especially in such a narrow-minded place. Look, I pushed myself. Don’t get me wrong. It was a big risk to have taken. But I’m so glad that I did. The next staff party, I dragged up again and I did a performance. As time went on, every hotel that I’ve been at, every staff function, I have done a drag number. That is where everything started.”

After discovering Alyssa Edwards, Oxy soon found drag queens like Trixie Mattel showing up on his feed. At first, being confronted by someone who looked and dressed like Trixie completely threw him. “Being brought up very conservative, very Christian, in an Afrikaans household, you go to church, you go to school, you go home. That was the rhythm. There wasn’t any freedom or liberty,” he explained.

“So when I saw Trixie, I was like, what the hell is going on here? I don't understand. How is this considered to be beautiful? But then the artistry behind it started revealing itself to me.”

He describes himself as a “jack of all trades, master of none” (which I would argue is wrong — he is certainly a master in my mind). He sings, writes songs, makes his own costumes and has hosted multiple art exhibitions in Cape Town. For Oxy, the shift was realising that drag isn’t about what you put on your face, but how you do it. Makeup and drag become a kind of armour, a way of protecting yourself.

“And when I'm Oxy, I don't have to worry about JD's shit anymore,” he said, drawing a clear line between the performer and the person behind her. “I do see them as two different entities. Oxy is completely different to what JD is. But at the core, we're still the same person. We still want to share the same message of acceptance. It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it to the best of your ability. If you can make one person happy, then you’ve done what you needed to do. That's what drag is all about really. It's sad that society has categorised certain people, and once you've been labelled, you cannot take that label off. I don't believe in labels. But if someone wants to go ahead and label me, that's on them. I know who I am. I know what my values are. Just because I put on a wig and heels and I tuck doesn't mean that I'm not a person. I'm just as much a person as any other person out there.”

When I asked Oxy about chosen family and how he’s integrated into the drag and queer community across South Africa, he lit up. “The more people you meet, when you hear their stories, you start pulling out your book, and you often don't realise that the person sitting across from you actually has their own library,” he said. “You start seeing it’s not only you that has gone through struggles, it’s the people around you as well. And that is when the family starts to form. It’s when you share the same sort of traumas in the sense of struggle and finding yourself, and just wanting to be who you are around people who celebrate you. That’s when you realise, okay, I’ve actually made the right choice. I’m in the right space. I want to be surrounded by people who light up when they see me. That’s who I surround myself with. So when I'm with my friends, we have a kiki.”

I couldn’t believe the preparation that goes into a drag show. Oxy walked me through her vigorous process, designed to make sure the show is up to standard. Each queen, she explained, has their own brand of drag and their own focus when planning a performance. For her, it is elegance. “Yes, I can be witty. I can be sharp. I can do the death drop. I can lip sync the house down, but I do have a certain level of elegance to it.”

When I asked how she came up with the name Oxymoron, Oxy pulled out a written answer, determined to fully convey what the name means. “Oxymoron by definition is a figure of speech. It’s an apparently contradictory term that exists together, right? For me, Oxymoron is the elevated version of me that JD aspires to be. She is louder. She’s fearless. She’s unapologetically vibrant. But she also puts a little bit of light into the world. So when I step into Oxy, I’m not just putting on a wig and makeup, I’m putting on a living piece of art. I always say Oxymoron is like bittersweet: bitter and sweet. I can do Oxy really well and I can do JD really well. And it’s a yin and yang. The one feeds off the other. Oxy can feed off JD’s struggles. But when Oxy is Oxy, she doesn’t have to worry about JD’s struggles. For a few hours, you can just be who you are and forget about the rest. And then when you go back home, you pull your wig off, put your heels in your closet and you just carry on with life.”

As someone who consumes drag as an audience member, I admitted that the art form has given me more confidence in my own life, even without performing it myself. Oxy agreed. Drag has definitely boosted her confidence, allowing her to let go of outside pressures while in drag, and to draw on Oxy’s strength when he is just JD.

Oxy recalls one of her most unforgettable drag moments, meeting one of her idols, Bianca Del Rio, during her Hurricane Bianca tour stop in Cape Town in 2018. Determined to impress, she turned up in drag, though, as she laughs now, her makeup attempt was more “oatmeal on the forehead” than polished perfection. With meet-and-greet tickets in hand, Oxy nervously approached Bianca, painfully aware of her bare ears. “I’ve always had a phobia of needles, so I couldn’t wear pierced earrings,” she explained. Trying to hide the fact with a scarf, Oxy hoped Bianca wouldn’t notice, but of course, she did. “The first thing she said to me was, ‘Where the fuck are your earrings?’” Oxy recalls. To her astonishment, Bianca removed one of her own shimmering blue clip-ons and fastened it to Oxy’s ear before posing for a photo together.

Oxy-Moron (right) with Bianca del Rio (left)

Of course, not everything on stage always goes as planned. Oxy recalls one performance where her wig had ideas of its own: “My wig decided to audition for So You Think You Can Dance? mid-number. It just flew right off. But the audience loved it, they thought it was planned!” Luckily it was a comedy set to Whitney Houston, so Oxy leaned into the chaos and worked the slip into the show. “You become very creative in drag,” she laughed, remembering another night where a popped nail had to be glued back on with chewing gum.

“Double-sided tape and safety pins become your best friends.”

When I asked Oxy what her favourite part of drag is, whether the sewing, the performing, the music or the planning, her answer was instant: the makeup. “That’s where the magic begins,” she said. With obsessive preparation the night before a show, every product laid out in its place, the hours-long process of transformation becomes a form of meditation. “It’s like meditation with glitter,” Oxy explained. “From gluing down my brows to shaping the eyes, every step forces you to be present. And then, when the wig goes on, the padding, the shoes, and I finally see the full transformation in the mirror, it’s like my five-year-old self is staring back at me, telling me everything will be okay.”

Music plays a big role in that process too, from rehearsing performance tracks on repeat to Gaga playlists that get her in the zone. Lady Gaga, in fact, has been one of Oxy’s biggest inspirations. “Every queer person says it, but it’s true: she helped me through so much. The way she is unapologetically herself, and celebrated for it, that gave me courage.” Oxy dreams not of fame, but of impact. “I want to leave a legacy behind that inspires people, the way she inspired me.”

For newer queens and performers hoping to break into drag, Oxy’s advice is clear: show up, commit, and put yourself out there. “It’s like a child or a plant, you need to nurture it. Reach out to venues, message people, keep showing up. Nothing just falls into your lap. You will get a hundred no’s, but there will be a yes. And you learn to appreciate the no’s, because they lead you to the yes.”

Above all, Oxy insists, drag is about confidence. “Confidence is 80% of the look,” she told me. “The other 20% is double-sided tape and safety pins.” That confidence, paired with humility and a refusal to let labels define her, makes Oxy a queen who feels as grounded as she is dazzling. As she put it herself:

“Drag is a living work of art. It’s about doing what makes you happy, even if people tell you you’ll never succeed. If anything, that only fuels me. Because the best feeling in the world is proving people wrong, with a little glitter, of course.”

As Oxy continues to split her time between life on cruise ships and the Cape Town drag scene, her future feels wide open. Whether she is dazzling crowds under bright stage lights or quietly sketching out new designs and ideas, her mission is clear: to celebrate individuality, inspire courage, and remind us all that joy is worth chasing. And if the wig flies off or the nail pops loose, Oxy will turn it into a punchline, a performance, and a moment to remember.