STATEMENT OF WORK

In my paintings and drawings, I’m concerned with bodily expression in space. I make works based on memories of physical experiences, such as playing competitive soccer or performing in drag. When I stumbled into taking ballroom dance lessons, I noticed immediately the rigidity of the roles, which mimic the normative values of our society, especially heteronormativity. Divided into male leaders and female followers, the performance of gender is embedded in the gestures, reinforced by the costumes. In response, I recreate ballroom dance gestures and positions with more fluid and open roles.  I explore the contradiction between the feeling of a dance inside my body and the way that markers of gender identity are perceived from the outside. Employing water-based paints, pastels and crayons, my works on paper sit between painting and drawing. The figurative compositions are tense within their borders, yet allow for moments of slippage and release, mirroring my feelings about their subject.