Artwork > Speculate

“Speculate” examines the queer intersection of secrets and sleepovers. With the tent as a vessel of hiding or not hiding, telling or not telling, the bodies of the viewer become conduits for connection.
Using a free motion foot while machine-sewing, I treat thread like pencil, writing in this tent-journal and sharing private thoughts with the viewer. This process quilts the layers together as I write, bringing the text into the third dimension. The conversation between the forward and backward text creates tension in what is easily visible and what is hidden. Blocking out portions of the forward text keeps my full truth untold, evoking a sense of clouded intimacy between myself and the viewer due to missing pieces of the story. The backwards text is only telling the truth to those who are patient enough to take the time to read it.
When the viewer’s body enters the tent, my true writing and secrets are revealed, but the internal viewer conceals themselves from others. They become secret, become invisible. Does this privacy lead to openness, or does it create a false shroud? With this process, self censorship becomes self preservation.