Friend of judy, 2023
Using mold/casting to create silicone ‘cock' rainbows’, this body of work investigates lineages of queer identity— from Oscar wilde… to Salman toor. Through acrylic mark-making, I’m rendering queer figuration, using caricature as a strategy to exaggerate the work of past cis male partners and modernist thought, as my motivations are to update—rather than restate— the male art cannon, from a queer pov.
thinking about the mold/cast as an affect of indoctrination, and preservation of gay desire. THe absurdity of the primary colored arches, referencing dildos, evoke an affect of gay male desire. I was interested in the ‘queering’ of 2nd wave feminist thought, where cis men are at the center of sexual and cultural antagonism—how does that claim fit in the framework of intersection feminists? are trans men also apart of that? or other masculine presenting identities. Can the phalus be resignified as a symbol of pleasure and desire?
these Abject cock rainbow serve as both a symbolism of cis-gay culture, and as a transgressive take on the politicization of ‘rainbow’ politics, (re: cops at pride/ the capitalist gesture of commodifying marginalized identities.)