PLAY, LAY, AYE:
Navigating queerness, where space is always in flux, 2019-present
Materials:
Steel, expanded metal, and plexi-glass
Dimensions:
36 x 36 x 60 inches each
Shows:
Bass Museum, Miami Fl, 2019
Fabrication:
Pulp Arts
GeoVanna Gonzalez
Funding Support:
Bass Museum
Navigating queerness, where space is always in flux, 2019-present
Materials:
Steel, expanded metal, and plexi-glass
Dimensions:
36 x 36 x 60 inches each
Shows:
Bass Museum, Miami Fl, 2019
Fabrication:
Pulp Arts
GeoVanna Gonzalez
Funding Support:
Bass Museum
Part sculpture, part happening, “PLAY, LAY, AYE” drew from the French Victorian furniture design known as a tête-à-tête (head to head)—a sofa bearing an S-curve shape that allowed two sitters to face each other closely in conversation without ever touching.
The historical form of the tête-à-tête speaks to desire, intimacy, secrecy, and restraint between two bodies. I remixed the tête-à-tête as a modular metal form with no barriers between bodies, creating a space where sitters are able to touch and feel one another if they so desire. I used expanded metal, echoing materials found in furniture at public parks—sites historically used by the LGBTQ+ community to engage in intimacy.
Wanting to address this history, I invited artists and activists, POC, womxn, queer, trans and gender non-conforming folks—who often use their art, poetry and music as a form of self-empowerment—to sit in the structure and reflect, gather, and share their ideas of openness and outness, during an afternoon gathering at The Bass Museum.
In addition, painted pink steel with blue plexiglass inserts plays with colors associated with the gender binary. As light mixes the pink and blue tones in the gallery space, parts of the sculpture reveal shades of lavender—a color long associated with gender non-conforming culture.
The historical form of the tête-à-tête speaks to desire, intimacy, secrecy, and restraint between two bodies. I remixed the tête-à-tête as a modular metal form with no barriers between bodies, creating a space where sitters are able to touch and feel one another if they so desire. I used expanded metal, echoing materials found in furniture at public parks—sites historically used by the LGBTQ+ community to engage in intimacy.
Wanting to address this history, I invited artists and activists, POC, womxn, queer, trans and gender non-conforming folks—who often use their art, poetry and music as a form of self-empowerment—to sit in the structure and reflect, gather, and share their ideas of openness and outness, during an afternoon gathering at The Bass Museum.
In addition, painted pink steel with blue plexiglass inserts plays with colors associated with the gender binary. As light mixes the pink and blue tones in the gallery space, parts of the sculpture reveal shades of lavender—a color long associated with gender non-conforming culture.