For two days in May 1992, artist Danny Tisdale stood on crowded street corners hawking the promotional materials of Transitions, Inc., a fictitious company which offered its customers the opportunity to alter their physical appearance as a means of achieving greater financial success.

The performance challenged prevailing ideas of race, class, assimilation, appropriation, affluence, and personal success, and served as a vehicle through which these issues and questions of identity could be raised directly with the communities most affected by them. Transitions, Inc. provoked responses ranging from curiosity to outrage from the general public, effectively generating discussion and debate between Tisdale and his audience.

Photograph by Marty Heitner

Danny Tisdale

Transitions, Inc.

Manhattan

1992