Foraging in the garden of queertopia

‘Foraging in the Garden of Queertopia’ explores creating queer spaces and realities where the binaries are reshaped within my own context by using natural and created spaces and materials. I’m interested in the ways moss acts as a metaphor for queerness and in its qualities of being able to survive in extreme conditions. Moss is nourishing, it cultivates a healthier environment and engulfs entire forest floors. 

Thinking about queer futurity and understanding queerness as something not yet reached, these individuals are transformed by stepping into queer time, searching for utopia. However, even this promise of a queer future, it is playing into the system of the dichotomy of 2, the past and future. I am juggling with this idea and addressing time in a way that challenges the binaries within production.

My work with natural materials such as dirt and mulch coupled with artificial materials like paper and fake moss shows how this queer world exists differently than our own. The body is autobiographical, a vessel containing history and experiences from which I pull and use in my work. My body connects and becomes an extension of the space communicating back and forth, exchanging energy, and becoming aware of the other’s changes.

The constraints of the binaries and the way society see gender are imposed on queer people, alienating those who choose not to conform. Utilizing set design to create a new queer reality allows me to exist within my own constructs of gender and liberate the way I experience the binaries.