This sculpture (“untitled”) was on display at the Queering Space exhibition at Alfred University School of Art and Design. The exhibition displayed several pieces by queer artists and was centered on the question of “what is a queer perspective and how does queerness meet form?”
I was intrigued by the fact that the piece took something natural and revered as pure—a tree—and reconstructed it out of something at first thought of as #disgusting and #impure —fingernails. Of course, fingernails are not inherently disgusting, considering everyone has them, but there is a social taboo on them when not attached to the fingers themselves. This seemed very relevant to the #queer experience: like the fingernails, queer people are often cast aside as disgusting. But that doesn’t necessarily mean our #existence is any less beautiful, much like the resulting tree.
Pepe, Sheila. “Untitled.” 1998, hydrocal, wire, plastic finger nails. Queering Space at Alfred University. 2 Feb.–28 Mar. 2018, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, School of Art and Design, Alfred University, Alfred.
SB