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, joy, and hope about my sexuality, I turned to art to explore how modern queer artists had expressed themselves - quite often during moments in history when LGBTQ+ people were criminalised.

As I explored queer artists and aesthetics, I began to create me own drawings, paintings, and performance works in response. I also began to question the most recognisable LGBTQ+ symbol: the pride flag.

The flag conjured to me - and continues to conjure to me - many questions 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 into individual threads, which became an object of their own.

In my current practice, I continue to have complex feelings about my homosexuality and societal attitudes surrounding queerness. Occasionally, I feel compelled to create expressive works in response.