Queer(scapes)

The Condor

A Foundation for Heteronormativity:

[Disclaimer: This piece is under development]

The representation of a San Francisco social schema can be expressed through presence and absence; as signifiers to the gender, racialized and sexual identities that intersect in a continuum of being.  In this work, the neon lights of the Condor act as a beacon in which the architecture illuminates, or does not, in the night sky of North Beach.  The very concept of signage, an alluring means to attract the attention of consumers, captures the senses as an intense visual spectacle.  And though the object of light is prominent in its positionality to the street, to the sky and to the back drop of the city, it is placed in a precarious manner in relation to the brick and concrete building that provides its structural base.  Its fragility and place in the city contrasted by its intense visual effect. 

Depicted in the piece, the key architectural elements are replaced with collaged imagery from Hal Fisher’s The Gay Seventies. This substitution serves as a means to illustrate the historical importance of San Francisco’s queer community’s impact on the city’s development as a cultural and economic hub.  The seventies in San Francisco represents a time before the Aides pandemic when queer artists, designers and entrepreneurs cemented San Francisco life into North American popular culture, paving the way for human rights movements that would be felt across the continent.  In Fischer’s work, queer culture in expressed through the signifiers of the gay man, the fetishes that arouse his desires, the street fashions that would constitute the queer male identity, and the place of lapsing time in which the queer community would cycle.

I approach this work with deep respect for queer artists, like Fischer, who articulated a new world free from oppression, ecstatic with freedom of expression.  The genesis that arrives from the juxtaposition of queer art illuminated by heterosexual strip-club signage attempts to mediate the relationship and harmony that can be achieved in liberal metropolitan centres.  The piece is further developed through the application and layering of paint on resin, and repeat.  The paper collage elements acquire an almost celluloid quality when embedded in the resin, allowing for the warmth of the color to carry through the image.  The piece itself is stretched on a wood frame using recycled Canvas from an expression wall that I used in my role at the university.  Antique upholstery tacks secure the canvass along with a full plywood backing to support the weight of the resin.  Fragments of ink can be seen penetrating the piece in portions of the neon sign.  Combined with a muddied moldy paint, the ink and paint combined within the layered resin produce an archival quality to illustrate the fragility of the symbiotics of queer/hetero co-existence.

[resin is fucking hard to photograph… better image to come]

Wading In Cognition

Sideways glances – quick glimpses of olive skin, muscular bodies and tight speedos – were a regular occurrence at swim practice.  Keeping calm in the change room, whilst the heart  races, was just part of the daily routine for this North Carolina boy.  The showers however were even harder.  Don’t stare...

Born in New York, and raised in North Carolina, the challenges that Michael faced as he came to terms with his sexuality were immense.  His method of navigating this world required him to go through a daily checklist of straight things that straight guys do to ensure his façade was intact – always ready to rebut any suggestion that he was not one of the boys. 

Of particular difficulty was navigating the change room.  Being a varsity athlete on the men’s swim team meant daily challenges to his heterosexual acting.  But how could one resist these temptations?  Young men, naked, or pretty much naked – we have all seen the speedos these guys wear – and in the prime of their life.  There is horseplay – whipping towels on bare bums – accompanied by your typical locker room guy-talk.

There were few people in Michael’s life that he could confide in.  A sister… a boyfriend… the online community… And fewer places he could find comfort…  At certain times in his formative years, he would think to himself – “Maybe I am not gay… maybe I just haven’t met the right girl yet?”  The state of North Carolina was a seemingly hostile place for this young man, known for its anti-trans laws.  It required Michael make a change in scene.

Michael sits before me in the photo studio at the University, describing the difficulties he experienced growing up as a closeted gay youth in the south.  As I listen to his thoughts on sexuality, and the toll of heteronormative acting on his mental health, colliding imagery of the State and the trepidatious locker room swirl in my head.  A cognitive landscape starts to materialize in my mind as I lose myself in Michaels retrospective analysis.