Homemaker
Thomas, Henry Evan
Citations
Abstract
Queerness defines itself against modes of normalcy. Domesticity, the middle class, and suburbia have defined the achievement and status of normalcy in American culture since the end of World War II, and queer people have navigated and balanced these prevailing ideas of normalcy ever since. HOMEMAKER is an exhibition of ceramic sculptures and installations that explores the ways in which domestic spaces from the suburban American South mold intimate queer life. The exhibition employs mold making and slip casting techniques to create imitations of architectural structures and kitsch objects found in suburban domestic spaces of the American South. Mold making is integral to this body of work both as a process of making and as a conceptual analogy of how queer people have continuously molded themselves into spaces of domesticity and overcome normative frameworks to protect themselves, find community, and create spaces in which they can continue to exist.
