VanDykesTransDykesTransVanTransGrandmxDykesTransAmDentalDamDamn is a large scale fiber collage (14 x 20 ft) of a post-apocalyptic speculative conversion van. Constructed of materials such as shoelaces, recycled bike inner tubes, LEDs, zippers, Lite Brites, patchwork black leather, and metal studs, the piece pays homage to pioneering lesbian, queer, and transgender histories and ruminates on the promises and problems of queer and alternative kinship structures, nomadism, landlessness, movement, and identity.
Tactics of humor, deviance, endurance and resilience serve as an entryway to address my anxiety over imminent environmental and economic collapse while simultaneously examining my roots as a fifth generation Detroiter who grew up steeped in car culture and how to imagine what could emerge out of these circumstances. The project remixes multiple published narratives that document queer/transgender conversion van culture including an article on the Van Dykes, a lesbian van gang that traversed North America in the 1970s, by Ariel Levy that appeared in The New Yorker in 2009 and Vanifesto, a zine by Haddasah Damien about contemporary queer and trans people who today have revived the transient and creative culture of van gangs.
This project, made from 2014-2020, was constructed with the generous support of the exhibitions Studio Views: Craft in the Expanded Field at Museum of Arts and Design, curated by Danny Orendorff and Carli Beseau and Vantasy Vehicle Vessel Verqshop at Spring Break Art Show (2020) curated by Dustin Yellin with additional support from residencies at QueensLab/Jim Hodges Studio and Pioneer Works.
Exhibition History: Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Change, Toledo Museum of Art, 2020-2021, Vantasy Vehicle Vessel Verqshop at Spring Break Art Show (2020), Studio Views: Craft in the Expanded Field at Museum of Arts and Design.
Press: New Yorker, Hyperallergic (2017), New York Times, Hyperallergic (SBAS), Hyperallergic (Radical Tradition).
Images by TalismanPHOTO, Madhouse Creative, Lorenzo de Los Angeles, Lauryn Siegel, Alec Snow, and Mark Yappueying.
