Queer Visibility & Masking in the Outdoors.
- KaiEdwardsArt
- May 17, 2021
- 2 min read
The Queer Experience as Hyper Object
‘Masking in the outdoors.’ The process of queering what it is to be with nature and pushing back against the heteronormative narratives and set boundaries of outdoor activity. How to present yourself, how to act and how you are perceived are all things that shape the queer experience, however in a rural environment these things have an air of difference to them. It’s no lie that there are far fewer Queer spaces in the rural UK (or anywhere, but here I speak mainly of the UK) Often we find ourselves stuck in push pull of emotions as openly queer people when we walk alongside nature. One one hand, it is a place where you can be free of judgement, for the most part, alone with the natural world however I/we, often find ourselves subconsciously attempting in even while being openly queer. For a place full of biodiversity, the wider population of cis/heterosexual folk have turned the outdoors into a pretty gendered place, despite it being an environment that nurtures sexual and gender spectrums of every sort.
With my work I have been exploring what it is like to draw attention to yourself, to queer an environment, yet be unidentifiable. I often feel like when I am out with nature, alone or with other queer people there is vastness and freedom, but also a need to reclaim a space. I often find myself feeling like I stick out like a sore thumb. I feel that the LGBTQ+ community are often confined or pushed together within city spaces.
“The Queer experience is rooted in expression and acceptance – a celebration of all the unique and individual natures that make up the whole of nature, a rich tapestry woven by biodiversity.” QUEER ECOLOGY (zines)
Soft sculpture work in Fletcher Moss woods.
AUDIO WORK.
‘Queering’ The active process of making an unquestioned and taken-for-granted idea of social relation into an unfamiliar or strange one to unpack its underlying power relations and to offer possibilities of resistance and other ways of thinking, doing, living and loving.
“The desire to connect to the other and the self simultaneously, to connect and transform, to evolve and decompose…Eros and desire have been far too sexualised and human centred in some circles. The body is a beacon, message, apocalyptic vehicle to the sacred, something beyond ourselves.” Pinar via @QUEERNATURE (Instagram)
I find the take that there is a Eurocentric worry towards linking gender and queerness to the land and that this in turn will de-politicize it. However land, place and the earth beneath us is the foundation of cosmopolitics.
So far my work has been a mix between sculpture, sound/audio, textiles and costume. I want to start combining some of these elements especially textiles and sculpture.
Thank you so much for reading! Kai ♥
They/Them/Theirs
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