SHIELDS FOR QUEER KIN // many-liths
In reckoning with today's political, environmental, and social realities, I have been compelled to make objects that enact support. In this vein, I invited four artist colleagues to develop a collaborative “shield” sculpture with me in late 2016, sparking the series Shields for Queer Kin (S4QK). Over the course of the following year, these collaborations yielded conversations exploring protection, ecology, interdependence, and strength in difference. The material, form, and technique selected to produce each S4QK sculpture evolved from these invested dialogues. S4QK collaborators areartists Terry Berlier, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Hannah Ireland and Amanda Curreri.
Shields for Queer Kin, Totems for Diagonal Resistance, and Many-liths explore the diagonal as a literal manifestation of queer politics. I imagine these leaning material-bodies as forming a sculptural field of resistance to the straight, right angles of the normative world.
DIAGONAL RESISTANCE //, Northern Arizona University Art Museum, Flagstaff, AZ
