first, one of my photos. it's not nearly as good as belle's, but i wanted to show you the full deal. on the left of the map, i hung a roll of paper with hanging pens, and invited viewers to share their random acts of queerness. to me, this wasn't a major part of the finished piece, more an interactive aspect of the installation, so i didn't ask belle to photograph it, and i probably haven't mentioned it before. i tucked the roll away with everything else when i brought the piece home, but i'm really looking forward to spending some time poring over it!
i'm also pretty proud of myself for hanging the rods and everything, they worked exactly like i wanted them to, and they were super cheap, overall. thanks ikea!
(if you haven't already, you might want to check out my previous post about this project, with people in the photos to show scale, and my artist's statement to tell you what it's all about)
now that you have the whole idea, check out the incredible photos. belle made my work look so AWESOME!
do you see how much BETTER belle's photos are? compare this one to the one above. omg! i didn't realize mine were that bad...
belle was also super fabulous to work with. i often feel like i need a basic "how to be an artist" class, because there are so many things that i have no idea about. one of those things is having my piece professionally photographed - who, what, where?
UBC/west side
she made it easy, and she didn't make me feel ridiculous not knowing what i wanted. as it turned out, the best day for her to take the photos was a day that i'd already committed to going out to the valley to hang out with Cynthia, Lysa, Carol and Kalin, and Kalin was counting on me to drive her, so i couldn't be there when belle took them. she was awesome about removing the instruction sheet (cause all the pins were used by then anyway) and putting it back after the photos.
Stanley Park. so awesome! "public" sex turned out to be quite a reoccurring theme with this piece, though it was spread out a lot more in other parts of the city.
i've thought about having my work photographed before, and the lovely Sonja took some photos for me when i submitted a few quilts to the IQF, but that's as far as i've gotten with that idea. a dear friend gently persuaded me that i HAD to start archiving my work, this piece in particular.
downtown
belle was already photographing other aspects of the Queer Arts Festival (including opening night), and i knew her work was fabulous because she took awesome shots of my bingo quilt last year, so it worked out perfectly to have her take these photos.
Beach Avenue. you can tell where the Pride Parade route goes, can't you?
more of a closeup of downtown
Seymour and Davie St
the Granville Bridge
i was actually picturing the pins pushed in the whole way, but i'm glad folks didn't, it looks so cool with them all sticking out!
east van, oh how i miss you.
didn't she do an amazing job? i'm so happy to have such wonderful images of such a labour intensive project!
(belle also does incredibly lovely portraits - if that's something you're interested in, i'd highly recommend you check out the gallery on her website!)
