material disobedience

Rhinestones, beads, crystals, embroidery, textiles, and ceramics have all been variously perceived as symbols of “excessive” cultures or lifestyles, an association that has served to reinforce creative hierarchies and trivialize marginalized identities. By centering these materials in their work, and transforming the stigma of “excess” into creative inspiration, the artists entwine visual and haptic pleasures with critical analyses of labour, gender, sex, and colonialism.

Théo Bignon’s meticulous embroideries use materials associated with flamboyant queer self-expression — shiny pink beads, glittering sequins, false eyelashes — to demonstrate the place-making praxis of queer cruising. Molly JF Caldwell’s tongue-in-cheek pink textiles emphasize the gendered politics of weaving and the finger-pointing spectacle of female celebrities. Meanwhile, Lux Gow-Habrich’s fantastical porcelain hair and makeup tools highlight a relationship between queer femme dressing rituals and diasporic (un)belonging. And Hea R. Kim invites us to imagine a possible ecological future of plastic-encrusted creatures in crystallized ecosystems. The artists’ skillful handling of their materials seduces attendees into an exquisite sensorium that gives way to refusal and radical self-creation.