My research (both theoretical and
practical) is primarily informed by Queer Theory and
writers such as David Halperin and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
and artists such as Lari Ptiman. It is concerned with
subjectivity and acts of queering in relationship to
the impact that the paradigms of performance and performativity
(the immaterial) may have on the production of artworks
(the material). With regards to theory I am concerned
with the dynamic relationship between post- material
activities and material production that explores the
limitations and possibilities of rethinking the terrain
of parody and pastiche less as a political stance than
as a strategy in which both are viewed in relationship
to processes of becoming, and of becoming as an ethical
matter.
Practically
my work is diverse utilising painting, photography,
drawing and text. Over time I have been interested in
accounting for and in some way representing gay men’s
experience but also in thinking through queer as a site
of in decidability. While the practice seems diverse
the common concern may be thought of in terms of parody
and pastiche. The vacillation between the photography
and painting is what renders the work as queered] and
in self representation Steve(Escort), particularly with
regards to the images we recognise and consume. I continue
to document cruising grounds [In the Garden of Delight,
Transitory Places] as a matter of holding close that
which other would deny us. It’s a sort of social
history. Material trans-ing has become a core concern
in that the work is posited as something that it is
not, what appears as a drawing is actually photographic
and what alludes to formal painting is in fact not painting
at all.
In
one sense I could say that the notion of the work as
‘decoy’ is redolent and the notion of one
thing passing as another is historically rather queer.
The publication, Art Becomes You!
( www.articlepress.co.uk
) maps out my thinking more fully.
