The Warmth of Community

The warmth of community

A commission for the Pacific Northwest Pride Foundation as part of their “Dear Me at 35” Mailer campaign. The artists on this project were tasked to reflect on certain time periods and this was my approach.

I was asked to focus on LGBTQIA+ history in the 1990s and 2000s. As these years contained the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, an immediate trigger is the iconic Quilt. As a queer descendent of rural midwestern quilters, I was excited to carry on this artisanal legacy of textiles through my own lens. 

In my early work, I often made lone figures in mysterious and ambiguous settings. These lonely atmospheric voids were a manifestation of my own isolation as a queer person of color. In “The Warmth of Community”, I wanted to also psychically evoke the macabre history of the struggle itself. Though the world can seem dark and vast, the Quilt heroically bursts through the canvas with its’ prismatic and warm presence. 

Another hallmark of my work is to include subtle, subliminal details and visual puns. Many historical and regional references are playfully and subtly woven into the patterns of the quilt. The audience will find iconic symbols of the LGBTQIA+ movement as well as references to different landmark legal cases like “Lawerence v TX” and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” The number 1098 Relates to the peak of exposure of HIV from blood transfusions (1993) during a peak year of the epidemic. 1098 is a pretty big number, but 45K that year and 50K in the two years to follow would have reflected the actual peak death counts, but I didn’t want the piece to be Too much of a downer.

For more information about Dear Me at 35, visit:

pridefoundation.org/dear-me-at-35

Citations:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5021a2.htm
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=kb-01-03#S1.4X