THE QUEER AND THE STATUS QUO
Human Conditions Series
Throughout history, there have been subcultures with atypical behaviors, ones that share a common quality that has been referred to as queer. These patterns of identities manifest in all cultures and societies, whether public or unsanctioned, and deviate from the majority. It is a strange happening that occurs in the annuls of time, one that carries into the future.
How do these eccentric groups, however different, resist norms and traditional standards? Why is there such a deviance in our species? There is no obvious, sound reasoning as to how or why the emerging of queer identity is occurring ... and it becomes a condition of mankind that each generation must confront for better or worse. There are other deviant groups, underground subcultures like punks, or ascetic monks, but is it a matter of identity, or choice?
The adoption of the queer identity is somewhat recent, but the legacy of queer culture spans millennia. It is ridiculed, fantasized, ostracized, normalized or celebrated... depending on when and where you are. Nonetheless, queerness persists. It is a condition of society and of individuals. Countless great artists, performers, scientists, leaders, writers, architects, CEO's and 'Renaissance Men' capable of thinking outside of the constraints of societies' status quo... would have identified as queer, and the global culture has benefited from an unsurmountable trove of knowledge, insight and beauty from this subculture.
This work pays homage to the legacy of the queer identity in society and throughout history, as well as to the curious nature of segregation and assimilation that identity plays in our changing culture.
Human Conditions Series: Queer, 2024. Printed and multimedia collage, 16"x 11".
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