Together, But Separate

The Center for Visual Arts, Toledo, OH. January 124 – February 14, 2019

In 2013, I was in a legal dispute with a former partner and collaborator, a copyright lawyer, over ownership of nude images of my own body. Together, But Separate is an installation that recreates the images of myself that I ultimately lost, alongside traditionally printed images of him that I continued to own. Looking back years later, I recognized how colonial and patriarchal histories of image authorship, where the camera was a tool to appropriate the thing photographed, influenced this outcome.

I began reconstructing the images of myself by digitally printing them on chiffon fabric. These were dipped in beeswax, layered with encaustic pigment, then scraped, burned, incised and adorned. Some were obscured completely with latex sacks that recall sutures, fetish-wear, or body bags. To produce the images of him, I followed photographic conventions by outsourcing the printing; I owned these images without laboring to produce them. Hung from armatures that recall drying racks, I began to think of these image/objects as somewhere between trophy hides and dirty laundry.

This exhibition was accompanied by a print zine edition of redacted e-mail correspondence. 

Exhibition History

The Now, 4-person exhibition, Pen + Brush Gallery,  New York, NY.  January 9 – February 15, 2020.

Pretty Queer, group exhibition, Contemporary Art Toledo, Toledo, OH. Curated by Brian Carpenter. June 15 – August 5, 2019.

No Honor No Heart, solo exhibition, The Center for Visual Arts, Toledo, OH, 2019. Curated by Brian Carpenter. January 14 – February 14, 2019.

Fluid Perspectives, group exhibition, Akron Soul Train, Akron, OH. October 2 – 30, 2018.

drivers/impulsers, group exhibition, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA. Curated by Anna Ialeggio. October 21 – 29, 2017.