Wood, hardware, acrylic paint, craft wax, tempera paint, latex paint, wooden scratch tools, awls, found housewares. 72” x 28” x 59”. 2023
I was always taught that it was wrong to deface public property. But we see the remnants of people’s desire to leave their mark everywhere it’s possible to get away with it. Clandestine initials, scratched into the shadowed corners of wooden bunks, were a summer camp standard and I’d be lying if I said I’d never carved my own. Similarly, queerness has persisted in defiance of societal pressure to remain hidden. We Were Here embraces the form and the action of breaking out of the shadows and encourages participants to make a joyful, nostalgic and semi-permanent mark: I WUZ HERE XOXO.
Featured in the solo exhibition Camp Camp 2023: Be Gay Do Crimes. Curated by Madison and Matt Creech for Fried Fruit Art Gallery in Wilmington, NC, USA.