works

previous/next gushing

spring 2022
digital
1:30 minutes ‘gushing’ is the name of my senior thesis show that was presented in Colburn Gallery in Colorado Springs in 2022. This exhibit included many of the works presented here: cute / anguish, calaya, happy birthday molly, nothing can defeat the spirit of the earth and thought daughters. The text below accompanied this exhibition. It alludes to themes of cuteness, care, grief, and memory. Much of my work from 2021-2022 was created in preparation for this installation. 


in this installation i explore my girlhood in this historical context of growing up very online and ending my teenagedom with a global pandemic and how all things coalesce to challenge notions of a singular objective reality. 

being raised online i’m accustomed to slipping into and moving between simulated alternate realities. 

girlhood is characterized by unicorns, cuteness, fairies, magic and fantasy. otherworldliness was an important facet of growing up socialized as a girl. 

leaving girlhood was characterized by my sexualization, objectification and still, infantilization. this is another way femininity relates to unreality. memories of violence return and layer themselves over other moments, as trauma has a way of distorting space and time.

sometimes i feel like an alien or a doll or a puppet or a cartoon character that is performing for the gaze. this work ruminates on these elements of horror and otherworldliness as reaction and as a remedy. 

feeling unreal can be magical and playful. imagination is a refuge. creating art is a refuge and conduit to the supernatural. fluid movement between real and unreal allows me to reconfigure learned perceptions of gender and art and harm and healing and intimacy. 

this work is also intended to build altars and make tributes to the people i love. the quotes on the shirts are from the faggots and their friends between revolutions this book reflects on queer kinship in times of crisis. this is an expression of the ways which i have carried and been carried by friends through moments that we couldn't endure alone. i love them!

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