My artistic process of 'insertion and thievery' is a means to revisit a time and place where my identity, and many queer identities, feel the need to hide and camouflage themselves. This strategy borrows from the 'hiding-in-plain-sight' nature of the decorative arts. Rooted in their specific place and time, domestic objects reach past utility towards ornamentation, an encrypted language that maps out safe passageways for queer migration. Reliant on the viewer’s interpretation, these open-ended codes suggest the endless possible paths of fiction rather than a singular, “correct” narrative of history.
Taking inspiration from Denton Welch’s uncompleted autobiographical novel, I Left My Grandfather’s House, my studio process resembles a picaresque, moving through drawing, collaging, drafting, printing, photography, garment construction, sewing, quilting, building, assembling, and starting all over again. Rather than an end-point, they are all methods of escape and discovery.
My most recent body of work began with research into The Old Manse in Concord, MA. Concord was the site of one of the first battles against British rule in the Revolutionary War in 1775, and one hundred years later, Emerson and Hawthorne both lived in The Old Manse, writing work that contributed to the intellectual revolution that broke away from European and British artistic influence. For two years, I spent time at The Old Manse in the shadow of these 19th century figures, eventually inserting myself as a parafictional character named Erastus Worthington, who was growing up in the house and trying to escape to Boston.
Erastus’ starting point was symbolized by a Staffordshire transferware teapot. Transferware allowed for mass-production of complex surface designs on pottery, often borrowing from Chinese decorative motifs. This technique was a far cheaper substitution for hand-painted porcelain, and the resulting democratization of the decorative arts helped build capitalism as we know it today. Fusing two of these transferware teapots together with wax and wire , this new hybrid became Erastus’ travel companion, a symbol of strength and transference. This form was transformed once again, its edges traced to collapse its three-dimensional shape into two-dimensional repeated patterns. These patterns were then collaged, photographed, and printed onto canvas, only to be quilted, stitched, and reworked again. The resulting motifs retain traces of their origins, yet express Erastus’ newfound freedom.
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