Carry You With Me: Ten Years of Portraits Consisting of 26 embroidered portraits of my friends, collaborators, lovers, and intergenerational community primarily living in New York City, this body of work was made over the course of ten years. Each portrait is a full-coverage embroidery that measures approximately 6 x 4 inches and is stitched entirely by hand. Carry You With Me: Ten Years of Portraits, illustrates how politics, queer/trans culture(s) and identity manifests in both highly visible and subtle ways through everyday encounters and life, whether it be in kitchens, at a protest, or making a film on Fire Island. Much of the embroidery is done in transit, typically on the subway, outside of traditional studio environments. One of the central tenants of my practice is the belief that working in textiles mirrors the flexibility and resilience that often permeates queer and trans survival and thriving. The embroideries demonstrate that art centering kinship, persistence, and connection can be made anywhere at any time. The title of the show is a reference the tote bag which I use to carry my embroideries with me. The art becomes nomadic and travels, and with that comes the companionship of the people whose images I am stitching.
The embroideries are framed between glass and hinged to the wall or mounted on platforms allowing the viewer to see both the recto and the verso. This specific method of installation positions portraiture and the self as simultaneously figurative and abstract and interdependent on each other.
Solo exhibition at Pioneer Works, September 10th-November 28th, 2021. Curated by Gabriel Florenz.
A cloth-cover, fully illustrated book with a forward by Sur Rodney (Sur), essays by Carmen D. Hermo and Theodore (ted) Kerr and a conversation between Tirza True Latimer, TT Takemoto was produced to accompany the show. Purchase the book here. More information on DAP. Book design and production by Daniel Kent, Jesse Johanning, Micaela Durand and Vivian Chui.
Press for Carry You With Me: Ten Years of Portraits:
Embroidery documentation by Megan Martin Studio.
Installation and book images: Daniel Terna, Hadley Raysor Smith, and Jesse Johanning.
