Twenty-four past lovers.
What was their name?
What did we do?
How did I feel?
Where did we meet?
My memory acts within my own biased mind, altering my recollection of these interactions, helping to disfigure personal experiences or past trauma that I may not have fully come to terms with, yet. twenty-four explores the obsessive ways these moments sit within me emotionally. Situating my physical queer body in submissive and dismissive positions I live in ‒ not only with other men but in society as well. Idealisms of the beauty of the male nude within the expression of my previous sexual encounters further challenge the societal norms of male representation. I incorporate an untraditional vulnerability and submissiveness, stereotypically ʻrareʼ in the male body. By manipulating the conversations that I have between my body and space, my practice acts as a coping mechanism to re-construct certain memories.
Acting as a coping mechanism to re-construct certain memories twenty-four invites viewers to peep into an erotic and obsessive set of performances. Installed to confront, help reflect, and aim to speak to a more elaborate understanding of what queer art is ‒ beyond being used as a label based on one’s sexuality.
I place my body at the forefront of my practice to help reimagine the stereotypical concept surrounding the male gender, especially within a queer context. Exposing my body both physically and emotionally, it creates a curious relationship between myself and the viewer, as I reflect on my own conflicts from my previous interactions with men. The sculptural relationship between the structure, the performance, and myself fully reflects the bodily and intimate nature of the work. The performances of carving these experiences on the inside of the work signify the way they remain as inscriptions in the back of my mind. Creating these marks with an echo of my previous experiencing.
By constructing a space that acts as a ʻself-portraitʼ of certain memories, my practice reflects on the personal experiences of growing up as a gay man within a heterosexual dominated space. Referencing all; public vs private, reality vs fantasy, and familiar vs unfamiliar. My luscious queer body stands in front of the hetero and homonormative construct that society allows to overpower the ever-changing definition of what queer means and even more specifically, what queer art stands for.
twenty-four is a navigation of personal experiences, a performative retrospective timeline, and a love letter to my previous self. Introducing the audience to an unconventional expression of the male body through a reflection process deemed to question the audiences initial ideas of queer male ideologies.
