Unable to ignore the influence of society, cultural norms, and established power structures, each of us develops individual identity through a process of augmentation, editing, and erasure. Society constantly reorganizes itself and re-categorizes people within it based on evolving social norms and power structures. This process is by nature both constant and fluid as we struggle between the inner and outer self, between what we choose to reveal and conceal, when alone and integrated. Our constructed identity is forever in flux as we move between each interpersonal experience.
The practice used to create my work reflects this process of erasure and revelation. To begin, an environment is printed on a sheet of paper. The paper is then placed face down onto a carved figurative woodcut and sanded. The sanding process removes layers of paper gradually introducing the figures into the printed environment. After infusing the sanded paper with wax, the print is mounted to allow viewing from both sides. From one side the figures are viewable but the image is clouded and from the other the image is clear, but the figures disappear. The viewer is never able to fully view the image and the figures as one.
A number of my images present two ghostlike male figures in domestic settings. This relates to an underlying concern with perceptions of gay couples. In gay and mainstream culture little attention is given to long-term same-sex relationships. Since gays and lesbians have no visually recognizable characteristics it becomes possible for this group to blend into dominant society. Having relocated recently from a conservative state to a more liberal one, I have been made more aware of this fluctuating identity. This group shares only the experience of “coming out”, the on going revealing/concealing of being homosexual depending on the social environment, similar to the figures in the prints which melt in and out of the background image.
The absence/presence of the figures and the delicate nature of the prints, echo the fragile nature of life. The mundane activities represented in the images speak about the beauty of everyday life and the sense of history contained within a room. Gay culture has forever been affected by the AIDS epidemic. It continues to be a shadow or specter hovering over society. These prints speak about this presence of death and the vulnerability of life. |
