Statement

My work is a collaborative and interdisciplinary practice of queer meaning making. I explore themes of queer identity, landscape and land use.. My practice is research based and concept-driven, thus my ideas shape the medium(s) that I use, which includes video, photography, fibers, digital and hand drawing. When I begin a new project, my concerns are the idea, the people involved and the medium. I spend time researching my topic as a part of my process. I read relevant theory and find reference in art history and  I visit relevant landscapes.  Medium is important to me because it can dictate an audience’s accessibility and comfort with a work. The consideration of the people that I work with, whether through participation or collaboration, contribute to which materials I decide to use.

 For example, my current projects include “Hidden in Plain Site”, a photo and fibers series in collaboration with Lamont Stanley Bryant and “A Different Horizon Atlas”, a digitally drawn speculative utopian mapping project in collaboration with groups of LGBTQAI+ people, and “If We Were Mountains”, a series of hand-drawn mountains alongside and immersive video.

 I am influenced by the queer punk communities where I sought chosen family for survival in my adulthood. For example, in my project “Samesies Island”, I worked closely with a group of other transmen to make work about an imaginary utopian island where only transmen live. I fabricated the drawings and sculptures for this work, but the ideas came from all of us.  During the pandemic, I have imagined myself collaborating with rocks, while also considering that one cannot collaborate with rocks.

 I employ queerness and collaboration to animate ideas. From a giant bed that invites visitors to sit together, to an augmented reality app about a demolished fountain, to drawings of rocks that imagine themselves as mountains, I use humor and speculation to address the experiences, or possible experiences, of people and things.