Queerness: Past and Present by Gailan Sabin Gray

Over the past couple of years, I have been creating images around the idea of Queer Modernity. Upon making my images I discovered more about queer history, more specifically queer art history. For some people, the idea of queerness is a modern or new age way of thinking, but, our identities have been around for centuries, going all the way back to 334 B.C. when Hephaestion, long believed to be Alexander the Great’s boyfriend had sent letters to Alexander’s mother telling her to stop quarreling with him. As the love he had for her son was insurmountable. We have tons of documentation that support the notion that queerness is not a new age concept. Rather, we have always been here, just hiding in plain sight. It is only now, in the present day, that we see a rampant exposure of new queer identities emerging because we feel more comfortable expressing ourselves openly.

For Queerness: Past and Present I focused on the polaroid process. The polaroid process results in a one-of-a-kind image that can never truly be replicated. A visual interpretation of the queer experience. Each individual has a one-of-a-kind experience coming to terms with who they are and ultimately finding ways to celebrate themselves in their fullest capacity. I chose to photograph my subjects with a softer focus to take a more painterly approach to the image making process. Mostly in reference to the art historical context that I have been consumed by for a few years. Within this exhibition, I have made sure to highlight specific queer coding that has been present in art history for centuries: the use of florals, peacock feathers, and sequins, all play a special role in the queer coding that has been present for centuries. 

Within the context of the “Queer Timeline” we queer folk must go through an extra hurdle in our lives. The average human experience in this timeline is: being born, growing up, finishing high school, going to college, joining the workforce, getting married, buying a house, and starting a family. However, with queer people, we have an extra step in our “Queer Timeline;” somewhere in there, we must come to terms with ourselves, which tends to put us ‘off track’ by a couple of years in relation to our heterosexual counterparts. An idea that got me thinking about how to represent queerness and not just rely on the hypersexuality that you’ll see when doing a rough hashtag search on Instagram of #queerart. Queerness is not just made for specific people, it is meant to be celebrated by everyone who has found themselves as an outsider looking in.

Queerness: Past and Present is my love letter to queerness and how diversified this notion is. I would like to thank my participants who openly shared themselves with my practice and embraced their own identities within this notion. I would also like to pay special homage to the queer elders who have paved the way for us queer folk to be so open and willing to love one another so openly and emphatically. It is because of them that we can exist. We no longer have to hide our queerness in coded symbols. I would also like to thank my husband, Cody Bates, for embracing my artistic practice and for his constant support.

I will also be offering a Polaroid Manipulation workshop on January 6, 2024, at 11:00AM. I have a few polaroid cameras available and will offer my expertise in the following techniques: polaroid emulsion lifts, film manipulation, and compositional techniques with polaroid film. Spacing is limited to 8 persons and the cost is $50 per person (to cover the price of the film), please contact gailangray@gmail.com to RSVP for the workshop.