Not Mine, Never Me, Still Want it, Wish I didn't, 2016
How does a young queer person try to imagine life before HIV/AIDS? How and where do trans men fit into the schema of gay iconography, gay rhetoric and gay manifestations of misogyny? Through gaining access to objects and symbols of a specific culture and experiencing/bearing witness to the ways in which a specific culture behaves, we envision a history that could only ever be an imaginary. To draw on Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, this imaginary envisioning can only be based on representations of earlier representations. For example, what we imagine of a place, time or idea can only be conjured from the films we've seen, the books we've read, the stories we've heard, etc.
This recycling of images, ideas and behaviors makes it impossible to trace what is real, further complicating the human drive to identify origins or roots of, in this particular instance, gay male culture. This is antithetical to our desires as social beings in constant search of our sense of belonging, as humans crave to understand symbols, gestures, and behaviors, so that we can align ourselves with a history and position ourselves within a culture. Another layer of challenge is added to this imagining, as a trans body has an inherently inconsistently gendered history. By appropriating codified gay male cultural objects and symbols like the disco ball and fringe, this work encourages the questioning of how we create cultural significance and how we construct collective behaviors, also calling for an examination of where historical belonging and present-future belonging merge and digress. Reflective surfaces and concrete gesture to club spaces, in attempt to imagine, position, and claim a history, which may or may not be one's to claim. This project is both an homage and a challenge to my elders, whose acceptance I desire, but often wish I didn't. Green screen and projection bring image creation- a literal animation of life to the objects, coupled with wind and water, an offering to bring to life.
Dimensions Vary - approximately 25' x 25', 2016
Sculpture/Installation
Green Screen, Disco Ball, Sheet Metal, Overhead Projector, Water, Wine Glass, Foil Fringe, Florescent Tubing, Cement, Box Fans
This recycling of images, ideas and behaviors makes it impossible to trace what is real, further complicating the human drive to identify origins or roots of, in this particular instance, gay male culture. This is antithetical to our desires as social beings in constant search of our sense of belonging, as humans crave to understand symbols, gestures, and behaviors, so that we can align ourselves with a history and position ourselves within a culture. Another layer of challenge is added to this imagining, as a trans body has an inherently inconsistently gendered history. By appropriating codified gay male cultural objects and symbols like the disco ball and fringe, this work encourages the questioning of how we create cultural significance and how we construct collective behaviors, also calling for an examination of where historical belonging and present-future belonging merge and digress. Reflective surfaces and concrete gesture to club spaces, in attempt to imagine, position, and claim a history, which may or may not be one's to claim. This project is both an homage and a challenge to my elders, whose acceptance I desire, but often wish I didn't. Green screen and projection bring image creation- a literal animation of life to the objects, coupled with wind and water, an offering to bring to life.
Dimensions Vary - approximately 25' x 25', 2016
Sculpture/Installation
Green Screen, Disco Ball, Sheet Metal, Overhead Projector, Water, Wine Glass, Foil Fringe, Florescent Tubing, Cement, Box Fans
Previous Installs
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
Making Chances, Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
Making Chances, Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL