Installation
This work is inspired by post office murals of the Great Depression Era that were funded by the Work Progress Administration. We are currently in a time in which legislators are trying to erase queerness from the nations schools and history with questions on the stability of same sex marriage and bills like Don’t Say Gay. This series appropriates the scale and style of post office murals from the 1930s turning government funded imagery into a statement of self and queer belonging. The poses in the work are suggestive in nature but not dissimilar to the look of the source material. I use my own image as a repeating motif in the work to show myself as a part of both queer and American history. The scale of the work relates to the source material but also serves as a way of creating a space where I feel represented and seen. Over the summer I work for my local government in creating art programming which brought up thoughts of a separation of self and how my queer identity remains hidden in the workplace. In creating queer work I explore subversion, creating imagery that is sexually charged but can fly under the radar of less observant viewers. By creating queer work that is more subtle it is welcome in spaces where other work may be denied. In all my work I try to create something that is confrontational and causes conversation and the scale of this work dominates a room and forces passersby to acknowledge its presence. By using tarp as a support for the work the subject matter of construction work relates to the materiality of the tarp itself which is intended for construction sites. The tarp is meant to be a cover, a means of protection and these connotations are carried into the work itself as the way I depict myself is a cover, a performance of masculinity. The tarp is an often overlooked tool that is seen as disposable, the intersection of blue collar masculine jobs and queerness is often ignored and overlooked. The queer body is associated with disposability especially in misinformation linked with sex and HIV education. The tarp is not an archival surface and will disintegrate over time, an extension of the aging queer body.