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| The Queer Houses of Brooklyn in the Three Towns of Breukelen, Boswyck, and Midwout during the 41st Year of the Stonewall Era, 2011 (based on the drawing by Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky, illustrations by Buzz Slutzky) poly-fill, acrylic, rayon, Lurex, wool, polyester, cotton, lamé, sequins, blended fabricsone-inch pins: metal, plastic, paper |
Beyond AIDS 2012: Looking
to extend the synapsis snapping and communiting convening, Visual AIDS will be
posting images, guest posts, and link round ups stemming from 2012 to keep the
best of the conference circulating. If you have something to share, email us at
info@visualaids.org
While in Washington for AIDS 2012 we got a chance to see Brooklyn
based artist L.J. Roberts’ work at the Renwick’s 40 Under 40: Craft Futures exhibition. It is a huge
and soft work that absorbs the eye and draws you in. As one of the organizers of last winter’s NOT
OVER: You, Me, Us and AIDS, which Visual AIDS supported, Roberts is part of a
growing movement of young artists, activists, academics, and involved citizens
that braid both HIV/AIDS history and urgency into their work. Currently Roberts is working on a large piece
inspired by Ira Sach’s short film Last Address. Below is Robert’s statement about the work at the Renwick.
The Queer Houses of
Brooklyn In The Three Towns of Breukelen, Boswyck, and Midwout During the 41st
Year of the Stonewall Era is documentation of a contemporary moment of a
thriving, activist, political, and creative community that practices resilience
and resistance through collaboration and cooperative co-existence, kinship, and
love.
Based on the drawing by Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky, and with
illustrations by Buzz Slutzky, the knitted, quilted and stitched map of these
queer collective houses, each with their own characteristic name and symbol,
references and subverts the iconography of coats-of-arms and heraldic devices
usually associated with royalty, corporations and the state. The work honors
queer, feminist, and trans histories such as the Stonewall Riots, activist
movements such as ACT UP and Queer Nation, the potent imagery of the artist
collective Gran Fury, and the collective grief and perseverance of the AIDS
Quilt, which included thousands of participants from across the world. In a way that is meant to evoke both the
formal and radical, this work celebrates the existence of chosen and deliberate
queer families built on a fierce spirit of love, sex, collective liberation,
and gender, sexual, and self-determination.
The map is a living and active archival memento of radical Do-It-Yourself/Do-It-Together/Punk
Craft practice and spirit that includes one-inch pins printed with the name of
each house and its representative illustration, free for any viewer to take.
For more information on Roberts visit: L.J. Roberts
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