Queer Aesthetics

In the third year of my degree studies, I created some of my most personal works to date. Wrought with feelings of fear, shame, guilt, hope, and joy about my sexuality, I turned to art to explore how modern queer artists had expressed themselves - often during periods in history when laws denied the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ people.

Alongside my research into the practice of queer artists and studies of queer aesthetics, I began to create my own drawings, paintings, and performance works in response, including questioning the most recognisable LGBTQ+ symbol: the Pride flag. The flag raised - and continues to raise - many questions for me about categorisation, representation, and equality. Does the rainbow flag represent me? Do I feel proud of who I am? Am I queer?

I posed these questions through a series of processes and works that dismantled the iconography of the Pride flag; resulting in a literal de-stitching of Pride flags from six stripes into individual threads, which became abstract objects in their own right.

In my current practice, I continue to have complex feelings about my own homosexuality as well as wider societal attitudes towards queerness. Occasionally, when words don’t suffice, I turn to art to express and reflect on my journey as a queer person.