We are excited to have @morgan__elena featuring in The Art of Being Queer Exhibition!
Artist Statement:
Morgan Sears-Williams is a white settler of Irish, English and German descent working in Tkaronto on the lands of the the Anishanaabe, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudensosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat.
Morgan is an interdisciplinary artist and holds a BFA in Photography from OCAD University. She is interested in experimenting with image making, installation, publications, and mixed media works as a tool for self-exploration, and defining and re-inventing perceptions of your self. Her practice often explores larger themes of feminist queer histories, collective memory and questioning institutional archiving practices. Recently she has been conducting interventions with analog technologies, such as rotary telephones, and altering perceptions of their usage and stories they hold. She has exhibited her works in Toronto, Kingston and internationally and was the recipient of the Pandora Y. H. Ho Memorial Award and the Artscape Youngplace Career Launcher in 2017.
SOFT explores various manifestations of love, tender care and intimate relationships between queer people as a demonstration of a political resistance. These portraits of intimate relationships aim to move beyond the notion that the most intimate relationship a person has is with their (presumedly monogamous) romantic partner. The people I’ve photographed could be lovers, siblings, romantic or platonic partners, non-monogamous or polyamorous. Chosen family is especially important to queer, trans and marginalized folks who are often pushed out of their biological family home due to their queer and/or trans identities. A chosen family is a new opportunity to redefine what family can mean in a way that works for the individual. My images are documentations of queer chosen families. All desires, love, affection and forms of care are validated and important to this series; I work to create a space to be vulnerable and peel off our layers of hurt and hardness that we build up. This series focuses on how queer love can transform an individual.
The Art of Being Queer Exhibition explores and celebrates queer artists and their work from around the globe. It provides an identity experience through which we assimilate the ongoing fight for queer representation not only in the art industry, but in mainstream media as a whole. This exhibition is curated by The Art of Being Queer, a growing organisation and podcast that highlights the censorship queer artists of all mediums face every day, and provides a platform on which these artists can showcase their work that is otherwise underrepresented, rejected, or hidden altogether.
The exhibition features multiple artists, all of whom have had different societal experiences and individual sets of struggles linked to their identity. Through art of many types, these brave artists demonstrate that identity, in its purest form, is not defined by biology or culture, but by what is felt within.
The exhibition takes place at Pineapple Black Gallery on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of September during Middlesbrough Art Weekender. We would love for you to join us for our launch event on Friday 27th September, 5pm-8pm.
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