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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Machine Dazzle say to the sparkly outfit? You dazzle me.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Machine Dazzle
Born
Matthew Flower

1972 (age 53–54)
Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Colorado, Boulder
OccupationCostume designer
Years active2001–present
Parents
  • James Flower (father)
  • Deborah Flower (mother)

Machine Dazzle (born 1972) is the stage name of Matthew Flower, an American costume designer, set designer, performance artist and drag queen known for his excessive and fantastical camp, surrealist, queer and maximalist approach. [1]

Early life

[edit]

Machine Dazzle was born Matthew Flower, in 1972 in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania.[2] The middle child of three sons, he was mostly raised by his mother Deborah, while his father James was away working as an engineer on oil tankers. The family moved to Houston, Texas and then eventually to Idaho Falls, where Flower felt alienated amongst the predominantly Mormon community. “I was always the tallest and the gayest” Machine Dazzle told Hilton Als when speaking about this period of his life for a piece in The New Yorker.[3]

Flower cites seeing the 1980 Olivia Newton-John film Xanadu at the age of 8 as a defining moment that helped shape his view of himself. At the age of 19, he came out as gay to his conservative parents.[2]

Flower attended and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, earning a degree in art. In 1994 he moved to New York City and joined the Dazzle Dancers. He spent this time working a myriad of day jobs, including a position as a jewelry designer and at the non-profit cultural center Exit Art, to support his growing fascination with designing extravagant costumes to wear at night in New York City's clubs such as CBGB and Jackie 60.[2]

The origin of the name Machine Dazzle came from dancing in costume at one such club as a Dazzle Dancer. A friend referred to him as a dancing machine, which quickly morphed into Machine Dazzle. Eventually he began taking commissions from drag queens and dancers. Julie Atlas Muz asked him to design a full show in 2004. In 2008, he designed the sets and costumes for Lustre, a Midwinter Trans-Fest, starring Justin Vivian Bond. In 2009, he designed Taylor Mac's five hour long The Lily's Revenge.[3]

Career

[edit]

Flower is known for utilizing novelty items or found objects such as ping pong balls, slinkies, soup cans, and rubber hotdogs into his costume work.[4]

He was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design[5] and the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award.[6]

In 2016, Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, which Flower heavily collaborated on, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.[2]

In 2022, the Museum of Art and Design in New York opened the first solo exhibition of his work, Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle. The show occupied two full floors of the museum and positioned full costumes, ephemera, material samples, photography, and video to fully contextualize the artist's body of work.[2]

In 2024, the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA)[7] presented his Ouroboros[8] in collaboration with the U of M Stamps School of Art and Design[9] after he was awarded the recipient of the Design Roman J. Witt Residency Program.[10] Ouroboros is a queer maximalist art exhibit made with the help of community members from locally sourced recycled materials. Ouroboros was introduced during UMMA's Pride Month and morphs as the installation progresses in three acts, culminating in its final act as "wearable sculptures" during 2024's LGBTQ Pride Month. Flower performed at the Ann Arbor Michigan Theater[11] on March 14, 2024 to talk about maximalism in addition to his exhibit installation.

Works

[edit]

Plays

[edit]

Works with costume and/or stage designs by Machine Dazzle [1]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Machine Dazzle | Pomegranate Arts". Pomegranate Arts. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Assunção, Muri (9 September 2022). "'Queer Maximalism,' first solo exhibition of NYC artist Machine Dazzle, opens at Museum of Arts and Design". New York Daily News. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  3. 1 2 Als, Hilton (1 October 2018). "Machine Dazzle Embodies a New Kind of Surrealism". The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  4. ↑ "Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle". madmuseum.org.
  5. ↑ "2017 awards".
  6. ↑ "America Theatre Wing". The American Theatre Wing.
  7. ↑ https://umma.umich.edu/
  8. ↑ "Ouroboros – University of Michigan Museum of Art".
  9. ↑ https://stamps.umich.edu/
  10. ↑ "Machine Dazzle Receives 2024 Roman Witt Artist Residency".
  11. ↑ "Machine Dazzle, 3/14/2024".
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