Wesley Harvey
| Wesley Harvey |
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Kylix Cup Earthenware, Underglaze, Glaze, Ppink
Rayon Fibers, Gitter, Resin, Laser Decals, Luster]
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| Artist StatementMy current body of artwork examines gay male sexuality through queer theory by the use of appropriation to create narratives and collage on hand-built ceramic sculptures including plates, teapots, vessels, and objects. I want to address the social and cultural differences of “being gay” in a society that is becoming more accepting of what used to be a scarlet letter worn only in the shadows of back alleys and dark rooms. I want to examine not only the normative behavior but also the deviant lifestyle. With previous artwork, I was examining my surroundings and personal encounters as the influence for the start of the collage process. Recently, I have put aside myself as the starting point and begun looking at others, almost in a voyeuristic way, through the use of personal ads posted to websites, specifically Craig’s List. In this online realm, I am able to find both the normative and the deviant behaviors that interest me, to help create the narratives within the ceramic hand-built forms.The Baroque and Rococo periods provide a great source of inspiration for the form of the vessels and the use of gold and floral designs in excess give me a visual overload of imagery and objects that deeply satisfy my tawdry desires. Kitsch and popular culture let me appropriate an endless supply of imagery that teeters from the extreme tacky to the candy-coated sickness that lies in heart of both kitsch and popular culture. Drag queens share my love of gold, glitter, and excessive prettiness that I adore. The illustrations of Tom of Finland allow me to appropriate a fantasy male subject who is handsome and extremely fit, physically, that interacts with other men in encounters that ride a line between caring and loving to deviant sexual acts that can be sometimes hard to look at. |
