Art Gallery : > Queer Reliquary

In this body of work, I create monoprints from salvaged building materials sourced from the Stonewall National Monument and Visitors Center. Working directly with original wooden boards, I coat their surfaces with natural charcoal collected from Fire Island, another site of historic queer sanctuary. The charcoal combines with sawdust and seeping residue from the wood itself, transferring place and history into the paper print. As the paper lifts, it absorbs the textures of the woodgrain, carrying with it the memory of the structure and the residue of its history. The resulting prints are both image and imprint; documents of touch, pressure, and time.

Along the print’s surface, fissures remain where the boards had split and deteriorated over time. Into these cracks, I inlay gold leaf, invoking the Japanese repair technique of Kintsugi, where breakage is honored rather than concealed. The gesture transforms loss into radiance, allowing wounds to become luminous markers of resilience.