One of the few luxuries queer people have in life is to choose their own family. We choose to form clusters of queer magic filled with support and love we want and deserve, as too many of us do not have access to it from our given families. As a group we decided to explore and expand on this theme retrospectively. This piece is our queer timeline, our attempt to trace our chosen ancestral roots, our way to pay tribute to those we admire, our earnest desire to bring all our loved ones together. In this work, we memorialize icons and movements in our diverse LGBTQ+ history. We set out to discover not only who is in our chosen family but who we would consider our chosen ancestors, our chosen lineage. What political or cultural movement mothered us? Who are our rebellious aunts and uncles that allow us to live as we do today? What people that came before us carved out space on this earth for us to walk on? We each went on individual journeys to the past to find these people, movements and images. Looking at the archive of queer history, our biological families, cultural phenomena and our own identities. This piece collapses not only the generational gaps between us as collaborators, but moreover positions our queer histories as an interwoven, indivisible experience. Here, we invite you to walk through our joined path of chosen, non-linear beautiful, sad, triumphant history. We invite you to walk amongst it and become a part of our family, our history, our future.
Artists: Lamar J, Danie Muriello, Arden A, and Yoav W
Materials: Wood, foam board, nails, being very butch and building things, being very fem and arranging flowers, photo prints, fabric, ribbon, plastic flowers, leggings, rice, found objects, collection of books, Arden’s nightstand, wallpaper, frames.
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